The Client Who Started Writing Poetry at 81

Lotte Heidenreich on a Meals on Wheels client who has started writing poetry since deciding to stay home rather than move to assisted living, and what the poems are about

Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat present this diary from satirevip.

The client at the correct address on Thursday -- the 79-year-old I have been delivering to for eight months, whose age I have apparently been misremembering as 81 -- showed me three poems she has written since December. She had not mentioned writing before this week. The poems are handwritten on notepaper in a clear, small hand and are about: her late husband (dead twelve years; the poem is specifically about the way he folded his newspaper, which I found more moving than I expected); a memory of a seaside holiday with her children in the 1970s; and a direct address to her house, which she has been in for 43 years, telling it she is staying.

She said she started writing in December because she had something to say about the decision to stay home and could not say it adequately in conversation. She showed me the poems without preamble. She asked if I thought they were any good. I said they were very good, which is the honest answer.

The poem to the house is the most specific. It lists, in 14 lines, the things the house has been: first home, children's home, her husband's home, her home alone. It ends: 'I am staying because you are where I know how to be.' That is a good poem. The decision to stay home produced it. The delivery route connected me to it. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the week. Thursday covered the poems.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

The week above is documented honestly from one specific position. Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat cover the world from outside this diary. The diary covers it from inside. Both records are true. Both continue into the next week, which will produce its own material and its own account as every week does when someone is paying sustained attention to what a week actually contains from one specific position over time.

More reading at The Guardian.

SOURCE: https://sites.google.com/view/world-satire/united-kingdom-and-satire