Billy Roberts fascinating new book Spooky Liverpool is available for pre-order now on www.merseyshop.com
Only yesterday it seems to Maggie that she was 21; but
now she is old and confused, and finds it so hard to go on.
She is no longer able to walk unaided; she just dreams in the corner
propped up and ignored; turning the years back in her mind when she is bored;
refusing to talk, as she stares vacantly back through the years to when she was 21.
Every day is much the same; her hair is brushed and her face is washed,
then like some childish game, she is propped up in the corner out of the way,
where she remains forgotten for the rest of the day; a tear wet upon her cheek that nobody sees;
a look of defeat in her eyes; pale and meak, she searches for a reason to go on -
suddenly reaching a decision back through the years to when she was 21.
She is discussed as if she is not there - as though she is a problem that must be solved:
'She doesn't eat much!' they declare. 'But when we have visitors she's always there.'
Is she senile, confused or simply afraid?
Or has she her welcome outstayed? Maggie's only real worry is to decide whether or not
to go on, or to drift back through the years to when she was 21.
Minds are made up, decisions have been made;
everything is arranged, poor Maggie's been betrayed.
Into a home she must go in some quaint sea-side town,
replacing her sweet smile with a sorrowful frown.
Her cries pass by unheard, as though no one had ever cared.
But at the dawn on the turning of the tide,
old Maggie in sadness died.
No reason could she find to go on,
so she slipped quietly back through the years to when she was 21
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