Best Octogenarians Poems

The classic names of nursing homes
    make me want to puke and groan

  How about 'Celestial Gardens?'
    great place to dump your 'burden'

  Then there's 'Sunset Terrace'
    at sundown, for embalming they prepare us

...

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When I was a boy of three,
My sister much older than me
Raced me to the teen-age stage
Where we seemed about the same age.

We knew that folks of thirty
Were way over the hill
And their greatest thrill
Was to sit back and relax
While teen-agers furnished them facts.

But when...

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THE SIXTY-FOURTH REUNION
By Leonard Kleeman

We held our 64th reunion just the other day.
We were the best class of 1949 we'd say.
Just us guys alone (we were not co-ed),
The girls came later after we all were wed.

Those of us who were left after all the years
would...

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after dark April 26th, 2022

Prometheus bound out the heavens
to strike fear in the hearts of men and women
reminding us mortals how like oxen yoked
(together via a wooden beam forced
to undergo strenuous labor)
unlike most elderly residents here
at Highland Manor Apartments
whose arising out of bed exertion
tuckers sexagenarians,...

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Hey, Who Said...

It was going to be easy

Getting over the time
When running over mountains to the beach was a Sunday jaunt
Giving Time permission to go in the wrong direction
Honoring past marriages as prep school
Letting go of offspring you’d rather continue parenting
Smiling during yearly physicals
Ignoring check-out-stand...

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Hate begets hate,
Fatality it’s sure fate,
The belly of the sated,
Churned by hatred,
The lame marching in defiance,
Gossips in one alliance,
The mute raise their voices in harmony,
As partakers in the ceremony,
Eavesdropping was the pastime of the deaf,
Whistling amused the children with lip and palate cleft,
The blind bystanders...

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Hey, Who Said...

It was going to be easy

Getting over the time
When running over mountains to the beach was a Sunday jaunt
Giving Time permission to go in the wrong direction
Honoring past marriages as prep school
Letting go of offspring you’d rather continue parenting
Smiling during yearly physicals
Ignoring check-out-stand...

Continue reading...

Witnessing the blood baths, the massacre
Of God’s people, children’s bodies everywhere,
And octogenarians expire slowly and quietly in horror.
The undistorted and the vivid images of terror,
The ugly realities of life for millions; what a rancor!
The large plumes of gray phosphorus smoke! There is nowhere
To hide. Showers...

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Apocalypse Beans

Sometimes it seems 
your chest is about to cave in.
You try to catch a breath but 
your heart flutters like a dry leaf;
Just more suburban undulations;
Dressed down for a slow blues song.
Apocalypse Beans sizzle on the fire.

Life has such trying interludes,
when it seems you...

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Crackling tension filled the community hall in Abergavenny 

‘We are in this together dear folks for a pound or a penny’

Speaking of which the loos were situated right behind the bar

To ensure that urinal relief was neither dribbling nor too far


Augmented by audio loops Gwyneth...

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Youth, having deserted them long ago, Tom and Sam
The octogenarians together formed an intimate league.
Every day, they would, meet at the country park in the evenings.
A ritual, they had religiously followed and enjoyed much.

One day Tom didn’t show up and Sam conjectured, he was unwell.
Sam...

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Three Score and Fifteen Years Ago
By Franklin Price
11/14/2020

Three score and fifteen years ago
I was born upon this earth
Joined a family of eight,
Was the ninth, for what it's worth

Four sisters and two brothers
A mother, father there for me
I was to be the last of them
That nevermore...

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Lo, I am about to create new heavens 
And a new earth 
Isaiah 65:17

Isaiah describes a new creation of universal happiness
Example food and good health for all
His words seem a stark contrast to our usual headlines
Is this wishful thinking?

Not really
Isaiah envisions a future not yet...

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A is for Artists, ageless souls ignite, In Malleshwaram's magic, bathed in golden light. 

B is for Bard's whispers, stories that unwind, Connecting young and old, a tapestry we find.

C is for Children, curious and bright, Drinking words like nectar, under the starry night. 

D...

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