Let me die a youngmans death not a clean & inbetween the sheets holywater death not a famous-last-words peaceful out of breath death
When Im 73 & in constant good tumour may I be mown down at dawn by a bright red sports car on my way home from an allnight party
Or when Im 91 with silver hair & sitting in a barbers chair may rival gangsters with hamfisted tommyguns burst in & give me a short back & insides
Or when Im 104 & banned from the Cavern may my mistress catching me in bed with her daughter & fearing her son cut me up into little pieces & throw away every piece but one
Let me die a youngmans death not a free from sin tiptoe in candle wax & waning death not a curtains drawn by angels borne what a nice way to go death
Published in Penguin Modern Poets 10. The Mersey Sound 1967.
Acknowledgments
Reprinted by permission of PFD on behalf of Michael Rosen.