The Invisible Elderly

She is a grey wisp of a woman
with a wispy voice as faint and
unassuming as her faded presence.
When Margaret, toddling down the
street, is yet distant even other
elderly residents whose eyesight has
begun to fail have no problem
identifying her ghostly gait. Fittingly
one supposes, she is otherwise
invisible to most other residents
save those whom the passage of time
has tamped into the residuals
category. Leave it to Margaret
with her vanishing presence to trip
over a palette at a garden centre
and tip herself forcefully into a
nice pile of decorative rocks. Face
first, of course. Now, her pallid
complexion has some interesting
colour though purple-and-charcoal
bruising do not come first to mind
as fashion-centric save for the elderly
given to falling. She has, however
most certainly become visible.