Walking around in the park <br />Should feel better than work: <br />The lake, the sunshine, <br />The grass to lie on, <br /> <br />Blurred playground noises <br />Beyond black-stockinged nurses - <br />Not a bad place to be. <br />Yet it doesn't suit me. <br /> <br />Being one of the men <br />You meet of an afternoon: <br />Palsied old step-takers, <br />Hare-eyed clerks with the jitters, <br /> <br />Waxed-fleshed out-patients <br />Still vague from accidents, <br />And characters in long coats <br />Deep in the litter-baskets - <br /> <br />All dodging the toad work <br />By being stupid or weak. <br />Think of being them! <br />Hearing the hours chime, <br /> <br />Watching the bread delivered, <br />The sun by clouds covered, <br />The children going home; <br />Think of being them, <br /> <br />Turning over their failures <br />By some bed of lobelias, <br />Nowhere to go but indoors, <br />Nor friends but empty chairs - <br /> <br />No, give me my in-tray, <br />My loaf-haired secretary, <br />My shall-I-keep-the-call-in-Sir: <br />What else can I answer, <br /> <br />When the lights come on at four <br />At the end of another year? <br />Give me your arm, old toad; <br />Help me down Cemetery Road.<br /><br />Philip Larkin<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/toads-revisited/
