Spring can really be the cruellest time of year when you are getting older. Especially when the sun is shining,the sky mostly blue, but there are patches of cumulus to send the temperature down for a few minutes
And those treacherous zephyrs! My hands sometimes go white just looking at Bridget Riley’s parallelogram paintings
It is particularly galling to read or hear some young person pitying the old ladies you see walking around with their coat fastened up to the neck & wearing gloves
No, they are not so far gone as not to realise that the sun is shining. They just have Raynaud’s disease
from The Wrong of Spring
Oh, this risen beauty, treacherous & cold,
Concealing in yellow sleeves its glittering knives
Intended for the tender parts of coves
Who are too old
To dance on green a little white measure now,
It is unbearable – well, almost so:
…
We dare not venture out; the knives are sharp;
The wind, the flowers, those lambs so delicate,
Yes, even they can pierce the faltering heart
Vernon Scannell
