Birthday Boy (92)*

Let me reach for your collected treasures
More than leftovers from the daily grind
Negotiations, tribulations, foxy measures
In the waiting room where I unwind 

Here is a chronicle of my journey too
Pictures, beginning, tending, and ending
‘vodka in the verse’; the fond Alan’s view
Who knows my heart needs mending

*Letter from the Palace to follow in eight years

Christopher 2023  

**The vodka in the verse:  Anthony Thwaite
www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview21