Not Fading Away

Not Fading Away

{Charles Crusty-Olde Farquhar, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel HH Crusty-Olde Farquhar, an officer in the Indian Army, was born on May 5 1910 at Tunbridge Wells. His father was killed in Mesopotamia in 1916. After his own long career in the Military, he retired to Silverton in Devon to tend begonias at Distension, the family seat.}

In this damn bed, three weeks now:
only last June it was, down the street,
m’birthday, Ninety-bloody-six.
Been growing the beard for a month;
bangers tied in it. Had to dye it black
Pirate hat kept falling onto m’nose.
Silver band were good, some of ‘em under forty.
The kids followed as I did the floral dance.

Doctor Johnson, (how I laughed)
asked just this morning, ‘what can I
do, for comfort, anything to help?’
No bedside manner to speak of.
‘Yes’, I told him, looking him square
in the bloodshot eye. He nearly fainted.
Not expecting a joke, not this late in the day.
‘You could make a bugger laugh at least.'