Aviva

 Aviva reunion. 

Queueing for hours in rugby’s Aviva

Surrounded by folk born in fifty one

Some looking younger and some a bit older

Than sixty nine years with the passage of time. 

We the high babies of fifty five

Seem back in our desks where it all begun

Sixty six years have come and gone 

Since the first day of school came along. 

I got a jab with a lad

Born the same year as me

I got a jab with a hon

Born in fifty one. 

We three had somehow survived

With our scars as a badge of honor 

We three had attended school

On early Saturday mornings. 

Behind our masks hid the lines

That announced approaching seventy

The fabric of our life and travels 

Etched in our eyes and mannerisms

We dressed for comfort not to impress

Either girl or boy or anybody 

We’d made our statements long ago

Silence now a remedy. 

We are the Oxford Astra babies 

But survive it we surely will

We the children of the fifties

Are just too bloody minded. 

We’ll meet again 

In three months time

To get the second jab and

The key to future freedom. 

A happy second meeting 

Then off we sail in a breeze

Once again into the deep seas

Of time and happier history. 

Knowing full well that when

We meet some years in the future

Beyond the pearly gates long queues

No longer will await us.