I am 57 years into riding the waves of life
some waves are welcome and wonderful,
some are life shattering and heart breaking
I am coming off a wave of the latter,
and trying to shore up for a big wave of change
While change can be good, and even powerful,
when you are beaten up by big waves and pounded
by the surf, the large wave coming at you can feel
daunting and unsurvivable, but my stubborness
and optimism have kicked in, and I say “Bring it on!”
Popeye the Sailor Man had a show on TV in the fifties that made us cheer
When the chips were down, we were yelling “Your spinach is near!”
He was beaten up weekly by his nemesis, Bluto, in front of his girl.
Olive Oyl was her name; she had dark black hair with one curl.
When the spinach music started and Popeye reached in his shirt for a can
We knew that he was going to get back at Bluto, because he was the man!
I hear the theme music today, and I think of Wimpy, a friend without a dime.
“I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today, he would say every time.
I received my child service record's about my life
And as I read the 500 pages it cut deep in to me just like a knife
A Mother that didn't want me a father that didn't care
Brothers and a sister that didn't really want me being there
Locked in a dark coal bunker with no glint of light
Beaten up everyday by people I could not fight
If something went wrong I was the one to blame
Broken shoes and ripped clothes I was so full of shame
I was sent out to steal and I could not say no
Because if I refused I was Beaten and I was made to go
As time went by and I started to grow
There were things about me that I needed to know.
But no one would tell me and pushed me aside
Like a dirty secret everybody wanted to hide
Now I'm a man and I will do what it will take
To find out why I was not wanted
Me the mistake.
here my soul calls out to yours
waiting for you to open the door
and somewhere deep down in your core
I’m sensing that you’re looking for more
what is love? who really knows
because as they say, anything goes
maybe it’s a thorny rose
maybe it’s a heart that froze
all I know is I’ve been waiting
I’ve given up on online dating
but this much is very clear
i feel that you’re very near
I wonder how we’ll end up meeting
I’m thinking about our first greeting
the universe hears me pleading
“where are you?” I keep repeating
I’ll try to let down my guard
but my heart has been pretty scarred
beaten up like an old birthday card
thrown around with no regard
but that’s okay because you know why?
no matter how many times I’ve cried
or how many times I listened to lies
this sh*t really only made me wise
I think that’s all I have to say
at least til I meet you anyway
I’ll wait for you to open the door
and tell me to finally be yours
Peggy had never been a fighter or a scrapper or such
But she got tired of being teased by a bully named Hutch
He called her names, and pulled her pigtails too
This happened many days in a row, possibly twenty-two
Peggy finally had had it; she gave him as good as he got.
Punched him so hard, his nose released a keg full of snot
The other kids watched in horror; they were terrified of him.
He had already beaten-up Dickie, Tommy, Jerry and Jim.
The teacher had never seen a girl stand up to a bully this way.
When Peggy landed on him, she wanted to yell “hooray”.
But instead, she had to send her to the principal’s office to think.
So, you finally took on Hutch the bully, he said, with a wink.
Struggling parents skipping meals so their children
can eat,
good Samaritans pulling someone from a burning
vehicle by a highway or street.
Police, military, some fallen in a firefight saving
other's lives,
firefighters going into an inferno rescuing people
out of a high rise,
that's a hero.
A work-weary single parent rewarded with their
small children's love,
praying for a raise gazing out the window
far above.
Blood donors answering the call to step up
during a critical need,
environmentalists' earth honoring creed,
that's a hero.
Two elderly men in 2023 quietly standing
up for unborn babies in front of a Baltimore
Planned Parenthood beaten up by a hater,
with their broken bones and bruises came
back to the abortion clinic four days later.
A lone swimmer saves two drowning people,
so brave,
barely makes it back to shore, but silently
watches EMTs give care to those he saved.
People standing tall for what is right,
can sleep well under God in the night.
Heroes don't hesitate-
their adrenaline surges, then they go,
that's a hero. ~
Fred is always ready for fisticuffs
Any excuse to get even for sighs and huffs
Has bruised many knuckles to prove this to you
Daily has at least one fight, and sometimes two.
Jailed in ’92 when his best friend was dead.
We were not sure it was even good ole Fred
Could not prove it was him, I guess.
Used to get beaten up regularly by his sister Tess.
(this is a true story, mine )
When I was just a tot, my tonsils got infected all the time
so my parents took me to the hospital right on time
All I could remember was a majestic doll with a pretty face
and eyes that opened and closed, with a hat of pretty lace
As he scooped me in his arms he gave me this doll
so I carried it with me everywhere I went, she was tall
but one day I fell asleep on the sidewalk, cause for alarm
still the doll was tucked safely under the crook of my arm
When I awoke the doll was gone, for years I did pine
and I wept bitterly for that doll that once was mine
a few years later as I grew grew up one day,
I found it sitting on the curb waiting for garbage day
It was all beaten up dirty, with missing limbs
and suddenly my memory dims
Was this the same doll dad gave me ?
I had to be ! It had to be !
Although the years did pass, my memory is like a feather
light and airy, like my dolly and I never could, forget her.
Queueing for busses
Even though not going far
Been queueing for busses
Ever since I sold the car.
I still can’t believe
What a bus passenger hears.
What have i been missing
For all of those years?
I sit there quietly
Occupying my place
Trying go maintain
An unmoving face.
I hear about adultery
Uninhibited sex
Heaven only knows
What I’ll hear next.
Delinquent children
Beaten up wives.
Don’t people these days
Lead such disjointed lives.
The best are young women
On their mobile phones.
They seem to think
They're in worlds of their own
Yet they all seem to speak
In a manner so loud
As if they are fighting
The noise from a crowd.
Admissions of guilt,
After fun filled nights,
Lurid descriptions
Of esoteric sights,
Three in a bed romps,
Translucent underwear,
Just some of the things heard
While quietly sitting there.
Sometimes I’ve travelled
miles further than I intended
Just to hear how
A good story ended
Queueing for busses
Even though not going far
Been queueing for busses
Ever since I sold the car.
I still can’t believe
What a bus passenger hears.
What have I been missing
For all of those years?
I stood silent, gazing at the dilapidated walls of this beaten up edifice,
Stiff and frozen, I could see the colours were fading, no sheen, no grace,
The green leaves of the older trees, masking the mature walls with deep furrows,
The rain, insignificantly, left behind a blemish, still beauty could not vitate.
The aged worn out castle still sings lullaby for the little girl in me,
The cool wrap of that long lost full moon, stil lulls me to sleep,
The memories of the adolescence, the cheer on the pink face,
I stood silent, bedraggled feet, heart heavy, eyes drooping to weep.
.
Acting like the man around an orangutan
beaten up so badly they wheel you in a pram
remember yesterday both your broken legs could stand
Acting like the man whose day hasn’t gone to plan!
Go on break its heart, don't be shy, ask it why
was it said in that way and not another?
Or maybe why the hell you even said that anyway?
A poem enters a boxing ring
gets beaten up, yet in the end
the loser is a winner,
the pummeling has changed its shape.
A seagull poops on your head,
kind of funny, everyone grins.
An eighteen-wheeler jackknives,
no one is hurt, poop does not kill,
but you're a poet, some kind of genius,
so you write about slippery bird guano
on a wet road,
a truck hydroplaning,
cars bursting into flames,
a trucker dying of colon cancer
long after that fatal accident.
Misery and joy must be manipulated
then handcuffed together.
You publish the deranged thing -
your mistake,
it's just another aberration of your nervous system.
Then you wait for some wiseass
to tear it apart,
and it serves you right.
For me my love
you are the one
though life has had its ups and down
you are the smile that stops my frowns
when life has beaten us around
you are the one that stays around
you are the smile that stops my frowns
when I am beaten up with fear
convinced no love for me is there
when life has beaten us around
For me my love you are the one
you are the smile that stops my frowns
you are the joy beneath my crown
when life has beaten us around
you are the one
you are the one
For me my love
(Meditative ballad)
Over the past 20 years, I've seen millions of people
taking small sips of freedom.
In the past two weeks, they're gulping terror again.
Over the past two weeks
I've seen people held against their will.
Desperately crying to be rescued.
Watched them be shut up-beaten up- blown up.
I've watched them plummet from the undercarriage of a rescue plane.
The most disturbing thing is that despite all the
heartache-
humiliation-
misery
rape and death.
There is still one man on this planet who thinks the whole thing was a smashing success...
And that man can't remember why.
Don't be ignorant, arrogant.
aggressive...
Because you can spend your life
getting beaten up
due to your procedures...
Not from me, but from life itself...!
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