A living dead

When not like a complete stranger, I usually look like someone’s colleague, often a neighbour,
sometimes even a father, but never like a husband or boyfriend, at least. How come, you ask?
Well, I tried once, but it turned out that looks can be deceptive, and the whole law of attraction,
if I ever believed in it, is nothing but a sedative. Of course, once tranquillized, I might make it
through another day. The problem is that being alive is not the same as living. So tell me, then,
what does that make me look like?

The chill of my age

With my mouth open, I doze in a garden chair, trying to warm my bones
in the Sunday morning sun. Is this the first sign of ageing—the chilling
fact that I am freezing in August? I know that this is the north of Scotland,
but still. And with all due respect, I am only slowly approaching my fifties,
not my nineties. I am nothing like all the elderly folks passing by my place
on the way to the nearby church. To be honest, they somehow seem more
alive.