Best Retire Poems
So they think you are old and shouldn't live alone,
maybe you're too frail to be left on your own
Can't manage your own money or live in your own home,
apprehensive you give up and take up the tossed bone
So many years spent taking care of them,
it's your turn they'll tell you and move you right in
Deep inside you hope to turn back the time,
your life's work was them sure it will be just fine
Your full of anticipation life is going to be easier now
Soon feeling like a relic lifted up and knocked down
You have so many stories memories of days passed,
feel like every story told could soon be your last
They have no time to listen they heard it all before,
tell you they'll talk later as they rush through the door
Feeling like a burden wondering what to do,
no one seems to care about the trials you've been through
To them, you're just repeating things already heard,
but if they'd stop to listen your words are not absurd
Everyone keeps talking about the day you will die,
and who gets what & how your property will divide
Not wanting to wait they reach out with dirty hands,
to take what's in reach they can't wait for the end
You start to feel decrepit and feel your life's a sin,
its a bad situation that no one wins in the end
You find yourself weaker something isn't right,
don't talk to old friends feeling like a fright
Every day grows longer you can't wait for the night,
no one even gets it it's such a dismal plight
You sleep and sleep and sleep to escape reality,
your youth is long faded along with vitality
Closing your mind eye reaching for your partner's hand,
but alone in your bed, this was not the master plan
The dream realm is all you see through the haze,
you lift your eyes up & meet your lost love's gaze
But please don't go too soon to that alternate reality,
there are those that still need to hear the words you speak
Stop dwelling on real or perceived infirmities
or without warning, it will drain your remaining vitality
When you think of death or of the dying that they speak,
hold your head up high and breathe life into the scene
Change your attitude don't die it's not a dream
the younger generation you still need to lead
Hold onto your life and sow a precious seed,
life is worth living don't lose it in a dream
Speak to me my muted heart
where went your rhyming ways
The voice of a hearts deepest hour
in mysteries a soul explained
Is your rhythm lost or simply hiding
in the noise of life as it whines
expression tied by hopes revising
sweet serenity and peace of mind
You run and ride with speed in your stride
ignoring all fear of the fall
you dig your heals and hold on tight
then question how momentum has stalled
An erie silence rests within
like unwritten lyrics implore
when inspiration is crushed to dust
supposing your song should be more
Poetry to you is a mountain
raised and balanced in a hand
yet your fountain of speech has ceased its flowing
like the trek across untraveled sands
If inspiration is swinging from a chandelier
opposing the status quo
and insight a vehicle to merely be steered
why now is there no marrow in your bones
Words keeping time with the beat of a life
linguistic expression out of step
lancing the poetess with a wordless knife
a beat-less palpitation in her chest
Return to me dear creativity
like frankincense anointed and blessed
convey the miracle of a heart unlaced
my poetic world at rest
Could it be I feel too much
farther reaching than any sea or the sky
or is this a symptom of insecurity
for all the where the when's or the why's
I am disassembled, rearranged
the safety net beneath me removed
everything familiar suddenly changed
with the muse of my rhythm unmoved
Perhaps when the seismic quake has passed
and my world is as it should be at last
I'll write of how transporting through worlds
was like a dance with a tornado as it twirls
Until then I'll retire my pen
and pray a new melody plays
some new, never known before tune
in the awe of poetic display
Is a Million Dollars Enough to Retire on?
By Elton Camp
We once thought that one who is a millionaire
Is a person who will never have financial care
But let’s say that you are getting ready to retire
Will this be enough to live on until you expire?
Assume that you draw out four percent per year
That’s a responsible figure is what we now hear
That would provide $40,000 to meet your need
A reasonable sum if house is free and no greed
No need to worry about retirement any more?
Doesn’t sound as bad as what I’ve heard before
But one really major problem does still remain
Just exactly how will that million you obtain?
Suppose that you work from twenty to sixty-five
To gain $22,000 average a year you must strive
Not all of this would you be compelled to save
You can include what return on investment gave
I have to wonder just where safe investment went
Certificates of deposit now pay about half a percent
On more risky type investments do you dare depend?
Loss of your funds will bring retirement to an end
Compare what your saving and investments are now
Is that likely to come to greatly increase somehow?
Could you right now save $22,000 by a year’s end
Even if, on doing so, your very life did depend?
So whether a million saved is enough, you see
Actually has very little relevance to most like me
So without a pension, can you now see just why
Some say they must continue to work till they die?
Misrule
Misappropriate
Mass-grave
Come sit with me, my dear old friend.
beside the fire. Where we will spend
a quiet hour, and reminisce
of days gone by when life was bliss.
And we will take a glass of wine.
I’ll toast your health and you’ll toast mine.
Our golden dreams to pure to last
and now our youthful time has past.
It’s time to step aside, make way,
for those whose youth is of today.
It is to them the mantle fell.
Just pray that we have taught them well.
And those of us who’ve had our time,
relax, recall our own sweet prime.
My pants are tucked snug beneath the socks on my feet.
I also wear gloves tucked beneath my long sleeves.
I wear a full facial mask of fabric that allows me to breath
and then I retire for the evening and go to sleep.
This isn't some fetish or obsessive compulsion.
This ritual is performed for my own protection
to insure that when I sleep that I am not being eaten
by my current, most unwelcome bed bug infestation.
I must retire this way every day until I can give my apartment
a 100% thorough and complete bed bug fumigation.
Until then I am forced to co exist with them.
Oh the extents I will go to pay cheap rent.
Teach me to understand the fineness!
Wean me from boredom and laziness!
Manifest to me many times kindness!
I am your slave, but… please…
Don’t put me on my knees!
I love you, I love you my father and mother,
I strongly believe in the great mystery of yours,
Only you can forgive me as I am a sinner,
Only you can understand me and do not curse.
I am infinitely tired on the sinful earth.
Can’t find the right words, but… Do you need them?
At any case you know my feelings and thoughts.
I am your prodigal daughter, for you was a problem.
Caring, tenderness, worries… There were lots.
But a family tree happened to be the rots.
I must say: Do not curse me my father!
I am the only one to blame for my guilt.
I prostrate myself in front of my mother
With her help the strong family was built.
She was my warmest quilt.
Teach me to understand the fineness!
Wean me from boredom and laziness!
Manifest to me many times the kindness!
I am your slave, but… please…
Don’t put me on my knees!
I was drowning without water,
I was burning without fire.
Allow me to stand on my knees!
Now it’s my greatest desire.
Tomorrow I will retire.
©Larisa Rzhepishevska (Odessa, Ukraine)
The 13th of May, 2013
Number 42 Retire
Brooklyn Dodgers Number 42
Hang up your jersey, honey
No one can follow you after Jackie Robinson
Major League Baseball was uplifted into the outer sphere
When Jackie Robinson was brave enough
And brazen enough to try….
Major League Baseball had been closed to people of color
Jackie’s prowess, professionalism and success changed
The way people in the USA thought about all sports.
Thank goodness.
He paved the way for
black football players and basketball players too
I wonder if he ever knew?
Packing up to finally leave her,
seven dwarfs getting a breather,
no more butler days,
enjoying sun's rays,
escaping Snow's screams and diva demeanor.
Come along retire, travel with me
Be my love in places we've not seen
We'll travel around the world our home
Roaming those valleys and mountains tall
Our love won't wane only grow__untame
We will have all our pleasures anew
Every moment treasure other
Whilst each day brings us new sunrises
Each one more glorious__ exciting
If these pleasures seem your heart to move
Come be my love in our latter life
In passage over the ocean blue
We'll travel see the world anew__dream
Dreams that our imagination schemes
(Parody of "The Passionate Shephard To His Love" by Christopher Marlowe (1564-
1593) for Dr. Ram's contest.)
Woke up this morning with a dirty big grin
Must have really enjoyed the dreams I was in
With chickies galore
Naughties on the floor
At eighty years old, should retire my mandolin
Do you want to acquire your desires before you retire?
Do not neglect what you admire
Always re-fire your entire desire
To inspire you as you aspire higher
Remember to inquire from those that have acquired
their desire before it expired
By that you can perspire great desire
and not overlook your attire
You will not misfire in all that may transpire
in achieving your entire desire
Never conspire against those that have acquired their desires
Before they retire with empire of sapphire
If you do that, it may backfire.
Three snow days in a row have changed my mind
about retirement for me. I can never do it now.
I am not ready and I frankly doubt I ever will be.
I have written 83 poems, 6 stories too, danced
with husband until I was dizzy. Baked six pies,
and twenty-eight chocolate cakes,
tried to keep a better than a little
bit busy.
I have painted the bathrooms,
purple and pink called ‘all of that.’
Vacuumed the dog, and
neutered a very angry cat.
I have eaten junk food
sandwiches full of
this and that, mostly crap
that kept me in a
major bad mood.
Three snow days is all it took
to convince me loud and clear
there will be no retirement
for me. At least not anywhere to close
to this year.
Retire To Florida?
By Elton Camp
It’s for old persons with leathery skin
The refuge of every sort of has been
Doctors who can’t hear a heart beat
Butchers who no longer can cut meat
Store clerks who are too old to sell
Musicians now unable to play well
The thief grown too feeble to steal
The card shark who can’t still deal
Bikers who can’t keep a Harley straight
Now a motorized wheelchair do rate
Any who can’t cut the mustard any more
Come knock on the Sunshine State door
Where Social Security rules as king
And income, no state taxes bring
If you can withstand a hurricane,
come to Florida and there remain
Where you get sand in your shoes
Hope that an alligator won’t choose
Or mosquitoes won’t take you away
And huge snakes you can keep at bay
Like the grass that will soon wither
Life seems to be growing older
And like an artiste that is leaving the stage
Life is now seen in its old age
Its strength is coming to an end
And its vigour reaching its last bend
Having the mind that is fast losing its dream
Never to be supportive again like a strong beam
Like a river it will flow away
And vanish like the wind without any trace
How great it shall be on that day
When life retires from its race