Day Centre Day

Sally sits in her bay window
Watching folks go by
“No-one ever visits me”
She murmurs with a sigh

She got up at seven
Had her usual breakfast at eight
Bacon, an egg and a slice of fried bread
On her usual Royal Doulton plate

About ten 'o' clock
The mini-bus will arrive
To take her to the Day Centre
She'll be back home by five

Her coat is hanging in the hallway
It’s looking quite well-worn
With a button hanging by a thread
And the right-hand pocket torn

She puts on her coat
And pulls on her woolly hat
She checks that everything’s switched off
And hears some mail drop on the mat

It’s the same old junk
That comes almost every day
A catalogue of thermal underwear
With twenty-eight weeks to pay

A bingo site seen on TV
Offering her fifty free spins
She's been on it a couple of times
But never had any wins

A letter from the council
About dog-mess in the streets
It’s been years since she last saw
A dog warden on their beat

A leaflet from a gas supplier
Says they’re going to freeze their price
She won't be changing over
Until she seeks advice

Her reading is interrupted
By the mini-bus beeping its horn
She hopes that none of her friends
Notice her pocket is torn

As she steps out onto the path
She can see the curtains twitching
Putting her keys in her pocket
Puts even more stress on the stitching

The mini-bus is half-full
With the old familiar faces
Alfie with his flowered shirt
And multi-coloured braces

Elspeth in her faux-fur coat
And jewellery of diamante
She bought it from a flea-market
But says she inherited them from her auntie

Doris in her parka
And her high-heeled leather boots
With her bleached blond hair
Spoilt by its dark roots

George in his usual shirt
With its frayed collar and cuffs
His brylcreemed hair adorns his head
Topped off with ear muffs

Sally clambers onto the bus
And sits in the seat next to Doris
All the way there she'll have to endure
Her moaning about hubby Horace

Doris says the same things every week
They've heard it all before
Nobody else gets a chance to speak
So her woes they all ignore

The bus arrives at the centre
And Doris is first off the bus
She pushes the others out of the way
No-one can be bothered to make a fuss

Sally gets seated between Alfie and George
Then someone says “Let’s play bingo”
She's over the moon and can't wait to play
She loves to hear all of the lingo

Like ‘two little ducks', that’s twenty-two
And ‘two-o’ that’s number twenty
The caller-out knows all of them
And believe me there are plenty

Doris is going to play bingo
And she queues to buy her books
She wins something nearly every week
And gets plenty of dirty looks

The bingo starts and Sally
Needs number fifty-nine
If the number comes out now
She's won a single line

Doris is on edge
She needs number twenty-three
It’s the next number out
Sally says “How lucky is she?”

Sally then doesn’t say a word
She’s quiet as a mouse
Thirteen is the number she needs
To win her a full house

Doris isn’t satisfied
With what she’s already won
She wins the full house on twenty-nine
And the game is no longer fun

When bingo is done
It's time to go home
Doris says she’ll spend her winnings
On her cat that’s called Jerome

Sally is home relaxing
In front of the TV
She wishes she had Doris’s luck
But she knows it’s not to be

She’s happy and contented
In her cosy home
Unlike Doris, hubby Horace
And the cat that’s called Jerome