Writing - Sharper than steel

 There's nothing new under the sun. 

What goes around comes around. 

History repeating itself. 

I shouldn't raise this subject as it can divide friends and families more rapidly and assuredly than the reasons behind the French Revolution, whether you live on the red or blue side of Liverpool, or, like or detest Marmite (Vegemite). Namely, the topic of assisted dying. The brilliant poet Pam Ayres wrote about this and other topics 11 years ago. I repeat her work below, but if you have the time search for the poem on YouTube you can hear her read the piece herself. 

Pam Ayres 

Count Me Out

In hospital now you risk MRSA

and under your bedstead the cockroaches play,

if you don't clutch your kidneys they'll have ‘em away,

So count me out. 

Euthanasia’s coming it's too late to run,

Hear the last loving words of a daughter or son,

you've outstayed your welcome now Ma, here's a gun,

So count me out.

 

I rang the police, ‘you must help me,’ I said,

an axe man is aiming an axe at my head,

he'll have had a rough childhood, don't hurt him, they said,

So count me out. 

Pam Ayres. (2013)

We tend to assume that everything that happens in our lives is unique but when you consider Pam's poem there isn't even a generation gap between the incidents and attitudes she illustrates so beautifully. So when you write on a topic that is pushing your buttons don't worry that it has been done before, you're entitled to your opinion. Besides language is as dynamic as life. 

God Bless