A Pensioner’s Lament

I want to go to the sea again
I want to go to the sea
Hear the hiss of its gravelly kiss
The sea! The sea! It’s the sea I miss

I want to go to the hills again
I want to go to the hills
Smell the sun burst bloom of the fragrant broom
Let me out! Let me out of this room

I want to ride the lanes again
I want to ride the lanes
Gliding cool as a jewel in space
And the air in my face and a beautiful place

Evde Hayat! Evde Hayat Var
Please Abi I don’t want to go far
Xanthos, Letoon, Pinara, Patara
Just a short ride if I can start my car-a

I will socially distance. I understand
Don’t sweat it. I get it
Flatten the curve! Flatten it!

But I feel flattened
Fattened and battened down,
In this high rise flat

Alone. Alone in this flat
Where you can’t swing a cat
Imagine that

It may come as a şok
Ama evde hayat? hayat yok!

Beyaz sarayda yaşamiyorum
I just want a little.. decorum

That is what we expect with age
Not locked in and trapped, clapped in a cage

I will keep the world safely at arm’s length
I get it. Don’t sweat it
I understand
I do not offer to shake your hand

Fitted and kitted with imaginary locks
In my anti tox, free of pox, two metre box
I will dance on my own to the sound of the sea
Thrashing and crashing, my shadow and me

I want to feel alive again
I want to feel alive
To stand on the shore
I ask no more
Where my spirit can soar
To the ocean’s roar
And breathe and breathe
To my beating core

See me      Feel me      Touch me     Heal me

An Englishman Abroad
May 26
The Year of Corona

Acknowledgement to Pete Townsend for the last line