Companionship in my Aged Care Facility

  In the years when I was compelled to attend workplace meetings 
  I would take my head on an hour-long holiday, assessing the merits 
  of colleagues as travelling partners or ‘stuck on an island’ companions. 
  
  Sometimes the same three men came on every trip with me. 
  When I varied the destinations to include building projects, festival 
  attendance and time in third world jails, the group identity shifted. 
  
  It is not that I wouldn’t choose those men as companions now 
  were I to island sit or trek through remote regions. But I’m thinking  
  about who I will encourage to share my aged-care facility. 
  
  ABC weather reporters with their ‘easy to listen to’ voices might 
  have been my residents of choice had I not pondered all that reliability. 
  Day after day sensibleness packaged in steel grey suits. 
  
  I could invite farmers; take it on the chin, character built by adversity types. 
  I’d be right with the talk of rain and crops and productivity. I could even 
  bear the constant anti-government sledging, but not their schedules. 
  
  Someone who thinks he’s hilarious, life of the party, punch line of the joke 
  suggested to me that I’d be an ideal companion in a place like that. I’m not sure  
  if that was intended as a compliment but he is not on any of my lists.