LADIES WHO LAUGH

This poem is inspired by the lovely laughing ladies who come to Palasiet together, and spend hours in the seawater pool, gossiping and giggling. When I grow up, I want to be like them.

🌊 ☀️🌊

They gather and jiggle

and gossip and giggle,

red lipstick, bath caps,

at their aquagym class.

Lovely ladies who laugh

Flirting with the male staff.

Watch them twinkle their wrinkles,

When their energy dwindles,

Zimmer frames by the pool,

Walking sticks, wheelchairs too.

Dodgy hips, swollen feet,

Wonky backs, aching knees,

But their auras shine bright

As they shriek with delight

At a joke shared between them –

Oh, if you could just see them! –

Hogging all the best jets,

Casually mischievous.

And once thoroughly pruned,

waddle out of the pool,

Wrap themselves in white robes

Comb their hair, dry their toes,

Struggle into their slides

With a groan and a sigh.

Reapply their red lipstick

Give their eyebrows a quick slick,

Then they potter away,

Getting on with their day.

Tomorrow they’ll all be back,

For their aquagym class,

Lovely ladies who laugh,

Wearing black bathing caps.