Green Man

I don’t, no one does,
want to end up
being absorbed by an armchair
with my shoulders
hunched around my ears
crying ‘Help me, help me,
can someone please help me’
as I’m sucked further into it
sinking so deep that it requires two,
two I say, stout nurses
to prise me out
and ease me into a chair with wheels
so that I can be transported
to the dining room for lunch at midday.

I would rather sit upright
on a hard bench all night.
I would prefer to allow
the cold damp air
and misty mornings
to worsen my chesty cough
and (yes please) finish me off.

I choose to escape debilitating old age
(if I can) and become as one
with wood and foliage
- a Green Man.