You are getting on, old fruit
Too obese to wear your new suit
Your face resembles a wrinkled prune
Old age is showing on you too soon,
What has happened to your lustrous hair
Your scalp is shiny and noticeably bare
Your jowls are hanging lower than your chin
My word, I cannot believe what a state you're in
Shoulders that were broad and strong
They are now all hunched and look all wrong.
Your knees are knobbly and a little bent,
The left leg forgot where the right one went.
I can not understand you when you talk,
Your brain, not your legs, has gone for a walk
Your eyes look blank, staring into space
You have lost touch with the human race.
We lost touch over the years,
After sharing much laughter and some tears
I have just seen you interviewed on TV
Old fruit, it was a shock to me,
To see you sitting in a chair,
With all the hoi polloi and fanfare there
Smiling happily from ear to ear
Holding up a glass of cheer
With the TV presenters and your guests
Wishing you the very best
And the audience stood up to say
Many happy returns of your 110th BIRTHDAY!
Today I hung out with hope
But she left
Cuz lies kept bugging her all the time
That was the 110th day in a row
I think I'll hang out with despair tomorrow
Tunnel to nowhere-
once the promise of a dream
abandoned neath city streets-
brought to light in color
through bold artistic fantasy.
August 15, 2019
Contest: Second Edition of Wayra
Sponsor: Nette Onclaud
Syllable count 5, 7, 7, 6, 8- Unrhymed
"Inside a never-used Second Avenue Subway tunnel. Aside
from some inspections by MTA workers, the tunnels have been
sealed for decades." Jose Martinez/NY1
"Stretching from 110th to 120th Street, it was built in the 1970s,
part of a still-unrealized goal of running subway trains all along
Manhattan's far East Side. It's a reminder of an era when
New York dreamed big- and of a time when New York didn't
have the money to fulfill its dreams." Spectrum News, NY1
Click on the link above, below photo, to read more if you wish.