Best Daycare Poems
When taking a bath in the tub
The first thing you'll notice, if you stay in too long,
Is how your fingertips shrivel.
Then, as you rub and scrub,
You might see bits of skin coming off your legs and arms
And you begin to grow little.
Some children pay no attention
To the warning signs I mention;
They stay in the bathtub all afternoon,
Until they start to dissolve.
They get smaller and smaller and smaller
Until they're far too small to holler;
They get wrinklier and wrinklier and pretty soon
They've shrunk so much there's nothing left
Except a ball of wrinkled skin
Where once a healthy kid had been.
This wrinkled skin is dyed blue
And sold in the store as a prune.
"How Prunes are Made" was in Nomo the Zine, November 1991, and was reprinted in The Ratty's Gazette 8, 1995. It is a poem in the ongoing series "Lucifera's Questionable Daycare Poems and Stories."
A significantly different day
No bread or milk
empty for toilet paper
Reduced opening hours in grocery stores
- Home insulation with
respiratory infection
Rationing on medicines
School closes -
no leisure activities
No daycare
No bus or taxi
No traveling abroad
All aboard aircraft and boat
must in quarantine
Large preventive measure
Dramatic cut in hotel beds
The church cancels all services
Closed office buildings
No cinema or theater
Today our first victim
as a result of the coronavirus
My deepest condolences to the family
~ "Normal life" is paused
Let this time bring out the best in us
12.03.2020
Coronavirus Covid-19 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Team PoetrySoup
Copyright © All Rights Reserved
I sing praise to the home-maker,
forgotten hero of the world,
whose actions raise up good children,
whether they be a boy or girl.
Whose presence is there to guide us
in a world that can seem half-damned,
who invest more love into us
than a day-care aide even can.
Who have a vested interest in
seeing that we are brought up well,
their children being their life’s work,
the results of this you can tell:
Less instance of mental illness,
less nihilism and despair,
less major social dysfunction
knowing that someone will be there.
They also provide a model
to their children subconsciously,
showing them how to structure their
own futures homes and families.
They give a agree of value to
a child just starting in life,
to know they’re so important that
another will freely sacrifice.
They teach those kids to realize,
that in a world so harsh and tough,
their existence isn’t nothing,
they are truly worthy of love.
And I think it should be mentioned
what home-makers do for their spouse,
building the kind of refuge that
reality rarely allows.
Making it so the house is more
then a shelter you happen to own,
making a place for life to happen,
turning board and glass to a home.
So many homes now without,
and the results haven’t been great,
children are depressed and stressed out,
many marriages end in hate.
Millennials not having children,
they never were shown why they should,
too many drugs and school shooters,
wherever we’ve gone, it’s not good.
Using daycare, the latch and key,
too much emphasis on career,
tells our kids they’re second-fiddle,
would be easier if they weren’t here.
Throwing away the cornerstone
of any balanced child’s mind,
demonizing those who stay home
when in truth I think we would find
That all of us would do better
with more stay-at-home parenting,
we should pray for more home-makers,
on their shoulders rest near everything…
Here is my dreamiest, dream job.
I will get to drive a fire truck and use the sirens - all the way to work and back. The gasoline will be paid for by my company.
There will be no committees, and no paperwork. No one will be required to do anything they do not want to do.
Everyone will be the boss of themselves. We will get to design our own luxurious offices. We decide what our work is.
The woman next to me is designing houses for people who do not have them. I am running a creative writing center slash art studio for pre-teens and full teenagers.
The woman who envisioned this company pays us what we decide we are worth. My best friend spends her day in an enormous greenhouse creating hybrids.
We eat a family style lunch and brainstorm our terrific ideas with each other. There is a lot of laughter, the walls exude joy. We want to stay late.
We have a hot tub, a swimming pool, daycare center, school, and arcade on the premises. The school is manned day and night, even weekends, so our children can go to school and learn geometry or psychiatry, or zoology at any age. All they have to do is talk to the teacher. They can go to school on Saturdays and all night! They love school because the curriculum is designed around their interests.
We can play whenever we want to play, swim whenever we want to swim, design whatever we want to design. Supplies are unlimited. Paper, pencils, coffee, fruit snacks, lunches, and suppers, are all free.
We design our day the way we feel it should go. My perfect career makes me feel respected, and is fulfilling in so many ways. My friends are here, and we help each other so often, they are my family; I am part of theirs also. We each have an apartment if we want to live here. It is soundproof so we can sleep at any time. Naps are encouraged. The perfect workplace. The only time we leave is to worship, because it is strongly encouraged to get away for one day and worship the deity and religion or non-religion of our choice.
In the bushes lurked a man
Keeping handy
Bits of candy
Luring children in the bushes
Where he hit them,
Scratched them, bit them.
If a man hides in the bushes
Don't go near him
If you hear him
In the bushes with a club
He will beat you,
Cook you, eat you.
This is another unpublished early poem, circa 1969, from the forever-after ongoing series "Lucifera's Questionable Daycare Poems and Stories."
Moments I feel weak
I work and work
Feel so busy it's hard to speak
Everywhere I turn
Feels like a block
I've got to do, no time for talk
But at the end of the day
There's an ache in my chest
There's so much time I was to invest
In better causes but this is where I'm left
Broke down by some stooge dressed in an Structure vest
I want to beat you so bad, I'll find a way
I don't give up that easy, just wont be today
There's room in this world for honest business
It's what my grandpa believed in,
That honorable feeling never goes out of season
I'll wake up one day
Walls will shatter like glass
I'll get up and everything will be in grasp
I'll have good workers that get paid well
Mothers can allow their kids out of their shell
They can raise them at home instead of a daycare
Way better than the present which sometimes is more than I can bear.
You left me to struggle on
my own.I had to dig deep
to make a better life for me
and our kids.
Sometimes l feel like l can't
make it,But the four little eyes
staring back at me, makes me
realize that I'm not living for one,
I'm living for three.
So l went back to school to get a
better career. And l put them in
daycare. Every day is a constant
struggle.Their love gives me deter-
mination to rise above the struggle.
Yes l will rise above negativity.
I will rise above a broken heart.
I will rise above my own in-
securities.Because I came to one
conclusion,At the end of the day, I
have no choice but to rise,cause
I'm not living for one I'm living for
three.
11-02-16
Alexis Y.
In your earliest days, I had seen you
Look across the room from a rocking chair.
Over the carpet, you would crawl to where
Very small toys were gathered in your view.
Every year, you always steadily grew;
You learned to play nicely and how to share.
Over time, you made new friends in daycare,
Understanding what to and not to do.
Many party invitations were sent
On the first day of every December;
Neatly wrapping presents on your birthday.
Keeping a close eye on where the time went
Each moment that I fondly remember
Your smiling face on graduation day.
© 2021
There is a new kid in town.
A new company.
Storefront with glass.
Headless Hands is what the marquee says.
A daycare center? Creative writing center? Nail salon?
Give up? I did. Headless hands tattoo.
Not sure I would want someone without a head tattooing me.
I am still pondering the why behind the name.
Two partners? Joe Headless and Stan Hands?
I would go in and ask, except
I am a woman who cannot say “no”.
Easily talked into stuff
And I have always thought
A baby dinosaur tattoo with
A red beret would look pretty
Sweet on my derriere.
I dare not go inside.
Was that a light?
Do you suppose they are open?
Headlines of irony in life…
Human satire—cuts like a knife.
The unsinkable ship, that sinks.
Surrounded by peeps, yet alone.
Priests who ‘prey’—yet sins they atone.
Pastor fights alcohol, but drinks.
Tax czar who cheats on his taxes.
Animal fans—hunt to relax.
Abortion kills—with nods and winks.
Lifeguard fearing water—lauds land.
‘Football’—a game played with the hands.
Oedipus—breaks riddle and Sphinx.
Headlines of irony in life...
“Women”—they may now take a wife.
The steakhouse owned by a vegan.
Pedophile daycare directors.
Homeless real estate inspectors.
WAR—‘politics’ by other means.
Fighting drugs, while promoting booze.
Mutual consent—the new ruse.
Prolonged charity squelches teens.
Green tinted speckles on bluefish.
Hitler’s Grandfather was Jewish!
Men—affectionately called ‘queens.’
In life, every nook and cranny,
Holds the next ‘headline irony.’
Good, bad, or sad—it’s Uncanny!
June 2, 2018
Written for Connor Lotts' poetry contest entitled, "Hutinashro - My First Contest Poetry Contest"
Help wanted. See the details below.
I’m lookin’ for a part-time assistant, and a life skills mentor,
A Quick Books accountant, and an exercise partner,
And a neat housekeeper that can do windows.
It helps if you’re a sink un-plugger, and a flower arranger,
And a calendar planner, and a good back scratcher,
And an organic gardener that can make things grow.
Later I might need a daycare provider, and a taxi driver,
And a paramedic, and a pre-school teacher.
You’ll be the go-to person that everyone knows.
It helps if you’re a gourmet cook, and a chic hair stylist,
And a party hostess, and a homework tutor.
Your duties will expand as the company grows.
There’s a retirement package no one else can match.
But I gotta warn you that there’s just one catch.
So if you think you could handle all of the above,
This is a twenty-year contract for a full-time love.
So if you want the position, click the link above!
Might be a thirty-year contract for a full-time love.
Maybe a forty-year contract for a full-time love.
I really need a secretary, and a home decorator,
A shiatsu masseuse, and a fashion coordinator.
There are no limits to how much you can grow.
I can offer you some health insurance, maybe college tuition,
Free company housing, and used transportation.
So what do you say, why don't we make a go?
Help wanted. Click the link above. Help wanted. Find somebody to love.
lottery tickets and scratch offs cause nothing but litter and
make the poor poorer and the rich state richer
prayer is not allowed in schools yet the money which
builds them says in God We Trust on it
the killing of babies is of free choice and is widespread
it is legal just as is the killing of criminals
epidemics of sexually transmitted disease and of drugs is rampant
and unnatural homosexuality is promoted as normal on prime time TV
and in many churches
hundreds of cults make millions of dollars as they brainwash
many and target the youth
sexual slave trafficking coexists along with them in every major city
in the country
thousands and thousands roam the streets homeless while
churches set on almost every corner locked and bared
pawnshops strip clubs and prostitutes abound
most young children are raised by daycare
to them and their parents it's not at all fair
there are few jobs and little healthcare anywhere
there are too many foodstamps and too much welfare
there like putting a bandade on a wound from a grenade
theres no more money for social security or medicade
the ten rules on which our country was founded
have been grounded
psalm 9 says
" The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations
that forget God "
statues are crying fetuses dieing
blood on the sand in the promised land
miss American pie
I Love You
WAKE UP
graydye 3-3-2010
when rob stepped out of the courthouse,with charges for posession
he thought "it could be worse,it could have been for weapons"
and then he thought..."nothing really matters anyway"
when liz stepped of of the rehab,with a new outlook on life
she felt all those same feelings of hurt, pain, and strife
and then she thought "nothing really matters anyway"
when luke picked up his young son from daycare,and knew he had an hour
he thought back to the time he WOULD have stopped to grab his now EX-wife some flowers
and then he thought "nothing really matters anyway"
when lisa lifted up her body with nothing but her arms,and looked down at her legs
she wondered why the heck they were even THERE anyway..what for?
and then she thought "nothing really matters anyway"
all four people that same night,all in their own homes
picked up a remote,turned on the news and watched it come to blows
one man had done 25 years in jail,for something he had not really done
one woman lost the battle to addiction,one she thought she'd already won
one boy got hit by a car on his bike,he just only 5 his parents,divorced
one man lost his arms and legs while over fighting the war
four different people,four different lives,four different struggles,all about to cry
four different souls,four different heart,four different minds,all to have a fresh start
why does it take a reality check to pull us into gear?
why is it that reality sometimes must be our greatest fear?
the next time you think you're the only one who hurts and has plight
the next time you feel you're all alone,the only one who cries at night
try and remember,try not to forget,that you are never alone
whether you're telling your mom and dad your gay to the face or over the phone
whether your wife divorced you,your husband's a dog,or your kids have NO respect
you are human,deserve more,and you're not alone,cause' there is someone right next....
to you!!! nothing really matters. until you realize...nothing really matters.
her brave silent soul
struggles to numb numb away
that lonesome~daycare
I remember her from my daycare
Not even sure if I was yet in underwear
She had blue eyes and blonde hair
I guess I was dab and debonair.
From the first day we began to play blocks
We hit the point of stealing each others socks
I could tell it was heating up
Because she drank from my spill free cup!!
At days end we were lining up at the door
She jumped in front of me as she had done before.
Then it happened, it happened so fast
It was a magical moment from my wee little past
She bent slightly forward, eyes closed, puckered lips…
I thought what is wrong with her face and hips
I did not see it coming just thought something was amiss
But she ended my day and started my life with my first kiss.
Now this tale might be a little tall
But so was everything when I was small
Her name was Shanna and it did happen in daycare
So my story is not too tall from there.
Contest YOUR FIRST KISS, FIRST LOVE, or FIRST BROKEN HEART
Brian Magness