I Can Work It Out

I've taken lots
of late-career tribute acts
and helped them see the paradox
of seventy year old Lennons – 
lean and creased like Jagger – 
tired eyeball to eyeball with McCartney,
washed up Yokos railing

at Pepsi deals and fat LPs.

Half a dozen sessions later

they'll disband and retire on State Pension
or take up jobs in DIY Stores,
never again speaking of those years.

In the Manager’s strip-lit office, clean,

they gaze at past Employees of the Month

and think of all that might have been.