Sonnet on Retirement

To David

I heard a whisper you were leaving us,

Well- not so much a whisper as a song

Of celebration, a feeling you’d been sprung

From the misery of toil. You didn’t give a cuss

That some of us would have to stay. The one

Good thing you’ll leave behind you when you go

Is the sense of pleasure that we’ll feel because we’ll know

That you’ll be out there on the golf course in the sun.

Your jolly, woolly jumpers will be just the thing

To wear with loud checked trousers and golf shoes.

You can spend hours working on your swing

Or at the 19^th hole, airing your views.

And we, poor souls, our countdowns not yet started
Can only sit here, working, broken-hearted.