DOWN AND OUT IN DOLLIS HILL

 It doesn’t take much

To crack a bone,

I realised, lying prone;

Bathing in waves of pain,

Beside the dustbin

With the blue lid

For plastic, glass and tins,

Which I was about to

Put stuff in

Until I slipped and tripped

And could not regain

A standing stance.

So, I advanced down,

Shoulder first

Into some hard, hard ground.

Then I wondered how this was

Happening to me now

When once I had ascended

Vikren,

The highest mountain in Bulgaria

When once I had run

Over boulder fields,

Cycled across France,

And it might not quite be

‘Attack ships off the

Shoulders of Orion’,

But I’d seen a great bustard,

An imperial eagle

And a red kite.

Now I grovel on a concrete floor,

And cannot regain my feet.

I must be grateful that it’s summer

So, I can involuntarily sunbathe

Whilst waiting in pain

For an ambulance to arrive

At my suburban driveway.