It takes all sorts to make a world, they say <br />(how do 'they' know anyway?) : <br />but it certainly looks like that here this sunny day: <br /> <br />some just want to be as ordinary as they can be. <br />don't want to stand out in a crowd. <br />some don't want to be noticed at all. <br />some are the opposite - pompous, arrogant, reckon they've made it.. <br />some have fallen flat on their face - as happens. <br />some get fresh flowers every week from secret admirers. <br />some are only smartened up once a year when their distant relations come to look them up. <br />some would like us to know that they know Latin or Greek or both. <br />some have a ready biblical text on their lips. Or a favourite hymn. <br />some are war heroes but are truly modest about it. <br />some are genuinely famous and want you to know it - or their relatives do. <br />some are unashamedly sentimental. <br />some are at the mercy of relatives who know what one should do. <br /> <br />The tombstones in Brompton Cemetery are a shoulder-to-shoulder lot; <br />too many to take in or care individually about <br />unless you check the one you've been sunbathing beside. <br /> <br />But as you rollerblade down the broad main avenue <br />in your sunglasses <br />with your sweater around your waist, <br />an ice-cream in one hand <br />and a small paper bag from the chemist in the other, <br />you may have missed that <br /> <br />every tombstone has a cheerful soul sitting on it <br />all looking about 35 years old, curiously, <br />swinging their feet in the sun and chatting with each other <br />and commenting lightly as you pass <br />with your doctor's prescription from the chemist, <br /> <br />wondering what you'll make of your life. Or have done so far.... <br />You should listen to them one day. <br />They're pretty good judges of character by now. <br />But not everybody notices them.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0211-it-takes-all-sorts/
