9-19-05 Purple

So I looked up my favorite poem. The poem that has been hanging on my bedroom wall, in caligraphy and flowers, for the better part of 12 years now. I found out that my favorite poem has become a cultural icon. Who knew?
This means that it's not a secret. It's not all that special. You've all heard it already. Pfffft.
Too bad. It's still my favorite. It matches up well with my old soul. It gives me hope of a time in life when I might just tell everyone exactly what I think...and then let them think I'm senile so it doesn't even matter. ;)


When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Poem by: Jenny Joseph