Countdown

Mammy liked watching Countdown
Every day
That teatime test of numbers
Verbal skills
I can see her standing
In her bungalow
Making up a word
Drills or frills

A mental test
The music got to me
Worried me
As seconds ticked away
Distracted from the exercise
Of spelling
I saw and heard
The approaching doom of day

In life too
The clock is slowly ticking
In truth
It’s going faster
By the day
Instead of adding up the years
I’m living
I find I’m counting down
Till I’m away

But that music
Does not know
The end’s approaching
We cannot tell when
Everything will close
Better then to keep on adding up
Better in the end
That no one knows

Brian Fahy
16 June 2021