Get Up
I pass by an old man, heaving his slightness like a boulder up,
up the steep lane towards the prefabs.
His back. When he hears wheels he stops
on his stick in the gravel. Sways a little.
Straining legs press weight past him – I’m late again –
and he starts to go on.
It’s his constitutional. When he gets to the grassy top
once he’s able to
he inches back down, his frame
that bit easier to bear.
Then up again.
06:50.
The alarm is at top volume to help get me in on time.
Let the pained figure hang
in mind a moment:
hold it.
And get up.
Ben McGuire lives in Bray, Ireland. He was a winner of the 2023 Coast to Coast to Coast Journal Prize, and the resulting pamphlet is Luke the World: Elegies for a Brother.