Best Seventy One Poems
I did not hesitate for one second.
I am an elementary school counselor.
I get to play with children.
They uplift me, and delight me.
I do my best to stop their tears and get them back to class.
I successfully eliminated twenty-eight jobs before I became a school counselor.
I was forty-four when I received my diploma.
So forty-four when I had my first counseling job.
I loved it, and I love this one.
I love counseling.
I love the kids.
I love teaching character education classes.
Retirement?
Not for this seventy-one year old.
I will go out at ninety-two in a body bag.
I ask only one thing.
Do not tell the children I am dead.
Just slip my body into the bag and leave me in a locked room
Until after school.
Then slip me away quietly.
There will be no funeral.
I don’t want any of them to have any more tears.
Some have had way too many already.
He said, "Old folks ain't worth nothing."
He said, "I'm thirty! and if you're over thirty you ain't nothing."
I said, "That's a lie! I'm seventy-one and young at heart."
He hadn't seen me sunning alone around the bend
While by the elevator, he stood waiting with his friends.
And I saw that his Counselor was my age
And I thought of my nine-to-five days
And volunteering in snow, sleet, wind, rain, and brine
And the sidewalk manhole in Brooklyn I climbed
And the emotional horse I fell off
And some folks may have had a good laugh
And the skylight I looked up to
And hands that healed and renewed.
And I say... my age is none of my business
I'm seventy-one, and life and me is not yet done.
*
WATER
Water Invigorates the Human Body
Hydration is so important for our body’s creation
to maintain as we play, run, and exercise
Our fluids start leaving our body through sweating
Dehydration can be life-threatening
Requisite is so important for water filtration for our benefit
Safe, clean drinking water to filter and make definite
Safe water supply , impermeable with safe amount of fluoride
Adequate drinking water is however, scarce in many hot regions
Precipitation released from the clouds in different forms;
Water cycle to our Earth
It cools and condenses into rain,
freezing rain, snow, or hail in the clouds
falling to the surface clean and clear
Water evaporates from the surface of the earth
rising again into the atmosphere
It varies in the amount that falls thought out the world
Making our earth seventy-one percent water
Besides the water that exists beneath the Earth’s surface
Leaving twenty-nine percent continents and island
Three point five percent is freshwater lakes and in crystallization form
As glaciers polar ice caps
If you could melt all the ice, the sea level would rise
Water itself is not blue, water gives of blue light upon reflection
Water invigorates the human body, animals, and plants
It is also important element on earth to survive
No water no life on earth
4/12/2016
Contest Name Second Chance #3
Sponsor Broken Wings
Yes finalized 4/17/2016 12:00:00 AM
1) HYDRATION (2) REQUISITE (3) PRECIPITATION (4) IMPERMEABLE (5) INVIGORATE (6) CRYSTALLIZATION
The Alphabet Contest
Sponsor: Alfred Vassallo
A Is For Anniversary
Their love story began on April twenty-third, nineteen forty-five,
two young lovers vowed eternity before their family's eyes.
There were hard days ahead living through the Great Depression,
an economic decline, raise in unemployment through recession.
World War II came and he went off to fight for his country,
only communication was through a few letters mailed monthly.
Back home with a baby waiting for him in his lover's arms,
war had ended and he came home to protect his family from harm.
Six children within twelve years, their family was complete,
he was such a hard working white collared man only wearing pleats.
She stayed at home to raise the kids, for that was way back then,
shopping for food and doing laundry, dedicated mother til' the end.
Children grew up and off to college or a marriage of their own,
while the loving couple became grandparents, oh my how they've grown!
Fifty years flew by and they kept the same routine everyday,
ten years later came great grandchildren they were so proud to display.
A decade later we noticed a decline in his health from arthritis and old age,
she also was getting frail very slowly with each passing day.
For now it was the children's turn to take very good care of them,
falling all the time, visits is the ICU, and hospice could never prevent.
He had lived to be ninety eight, while she is now ninety three,
his time on earth had come to an end, and he was finally free.
So many fond memories survived each one thought of with many tears,
this April twenty-third, they would have been married seventy one years.
I speak to the Lord nightly in thanksgiving for their love and His mercy,
I'll whisper to the sky, “I love you Grandpa, happy seventy-first anniversary.”
Date Written: March 20, 2016
My husband thinks Viagra is the best
Most men take it for the zest
But he takes it for his rest
It keeps him safely in his nest
Now he doesn't roll out of bed
Or wake-up with bumps on his head
He doesn't need all the fun
For he's seventy-one
© 7/18/2015
Always at the end of his jokes
She heads off to visit her folks
Being a blonde is no fun
So off she does run
For sometime away from her bloke
So into the country she heads
This blonde who is now a brunette
But on the road she does meet
A woolly flock off nice sheep
As she slams on the anchors in sweat
To the shepherd she offers to ask
How many you have is my task
If I guess it dead right
I take one home tonight
As she hopes to lose this blonde mask
She counts as she guesses bang on
There is one hundred and seventy one
Slowly looking around
She takes the one sitting down
Feeling shes on a home run
Now the shepherds been left so agog
Amazed at this brunette road hog
Her shade of hair he has guessed
Birth blonde you are blessed
It's not a sheep you have, it's my dog
Red lights in the western window
Five hundred feet and counting
The continuous pour
Of 1975 or was it 76
Appearing over the hill top
Like Kilroy
Only still here
The pipes bringith
The pipes taketh away
Gas in exchange for steam
Steam in exchange for power
Power in exchange
For someone else's money
While the left over smoke
In exchange for clean air
Blows up the chimney
Workers voices
Like Bill Baker
(He was our neighbour
In seventy one until he
smoked his last)
Echoed through the pipework
Put together then
Now slowly taken apart
The only noise left
A low hum
Generated
In some other place
(For six days in mid-August, 1971, at Stanford
University near San Francisco, a psychological
experiment was conducted in which students
took on the roles of prisoners and prison guards.
The experiment had to be cut short, because the
guards were indulging in unhealthily sadistic
behaviour.)
"Never again," we say.
Those things can't be repeated.
"We set our face against him,
and Hitler was defeated."
Are you sure?
If sweet-talking you
could make it come true,
I would hand you the world
right now on a silver platter ...
but what would it matter?
Life isn't always Garry Keillor.
It's Rwanda, too. Sabra, Shatila.
The key you're holding
won't fit my door.
And you're not welcome
any more.
Just picture this, my friend.
Almost in sight of the Alcatraz ferry,
that sunny August of seventy-one,
a couple miles from Haight-Ashbury
something funny has begun
- and we're not talking Tom and Jerry.
You used me and abused me
till I felt like I wanted to die.
You created a need in me
that only you can satisfy.
Well-heeled campus kids
don’t quibble at the pay rates
make fifteen bucks a day
playing guards-and-inmates
- but is it really play?
I wondered hard
'tween twelve and one:
I asked my God,
"What have I done?"
These guards love Cohen, Dylan,
Che Guevarra, Mao, Durruti -
but now they're volunteering
for unpaid extra duty.
He spits into my food tray
for nothing more than spite.
Hear him whip the women
just around midnight.
You'd be surprised
what humans do.
Hippies can be Nazis, too.
one two three four five and six
severn eight nine ten eleven and indeed twelve
thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen
seventeen eighteen nineteen then twenty
twenty one twenty two twenty three twenty four
twenty five twenty six twenty severn twenty eight
twenty nine and thirty
thirty one thirty two and three
thirty four thirth five thirty six
thirty severn thirty eight thirty nine then forty
forty one forty two forty three forty four
forty five forty six forty severn and eight
forty nine
fifty one two and three
fifty four five and six
fifty severn fifty eight and nine
sixty
sixty one sixty two three four five and six
sixty severn sixty eight sixty nine
seventy
seventy one seventy two
seventy three four and indeed five
seventy six seventy severn seventy eight
seventy nine eighty
eighty one eighty two followed by three
eighty four eighty five eighty six
eighty severn eighty eight eighty nine
and ninety
ninety one two three four five
ninety six ninety severn ninety eight
ninety nine
and home
I immigrated to Canada from Greece, in nineteen seventy-one
It was the best thing in my life that till that moment I had done
Nothing was easy for me since I did not know anyone, I confess
The first thing I had to do was to establish a new address
I had to find work but spoke little of English and not a word of French
This made everything difficult so I couldn't my hunger quench
Little by little though and after many sacrifices from my part
Slowly but steadily I succeded in making a new start
I began to work and at the same time started going to evening school
For I did not wish forever to remain an ignorant fool
Years, painfully, passed by and finally, one day I got my first degree
I learned, English, French, German and also got my Ph.D.
Commenced teaching, found an honest Canadian woman, and tied the knot
Became a Canadian citizen, had children whom I love a lot.
Now I look back on this exciting adventure and gratefully exclaim:
" Thank you, O CANADA, for, without you, my victory couldn't proclaim! "**
© Demetrios Trifiatis
01 July 2021
* This is biographical writing. All words are true!
** Alexander the Great made once a declaration about his teacher who was no other than the famous Greek philosopher, Aristotle. He said: " To my father, I owe my being but to my teacher, I owe my well-being."
Paraphrasing, Alexander, I say: ' To Greece, I owe my being but to Canada, I owe my well-Being." HAPPY CANADA DAY!
The Bass Strait sealing rush began in eighteen-o-three,
where at least a dozen vessels were wrestling with the sea,
for the China trade was booming, for the want of skins and oils.
This was the first real export, from Australian soils.
With prices high as gold, more entered in the Strait.
Ships joining in the rush, from India, France, U.S.A.
Sea Elephants roaming King and the nearby islands,
soon disappeared as the buccaneers cut the big herds down.
Cutters, brigs and schooners, dared through mist and haze,
as the cut-throats, thieves and pirates, plied their bloody trade.
With-in a loose alliance they colonized the islands,
along the southern coast in the Bass Strait sealing days.
Governor King encouraged sealing, for its productive article,
though he couldn’t find an answer when the French entered the cull.
When the ship ‘Surprise’ was wrecked, the crew died in the water.
The governor he wrote, ‘this may stop advances from this quarter’.
Commandant Bowan who controlled Tasmanian land settlement,
underhand from an American, four hundred pounds to his pocket went.
Delano was prepared to pay for the fortune he would rend.
The commandant gave an extra lift - seventeen Botany Bay men.
New sealing grounds were found in the late of eighteen-o-three.
Kangaroo Island produced thousands to be stored way up in Sydney.
Eleven men on the ‘Antipodes’ slaughtered ‘til o-five,
where sixty thousand skins were loaded - a record for all time.
Labourers they left the land for their fortunes to be made.
Boarded the ‘Union’ or the ‘Pilgrim’ - any boat that’s in the trade.
Now Governor King was turning as new problems showed their face.
So many men had left the land with no one to take their place.
monologue
Sealing died hard in Bass Strait. By seventy-one the trade for skins faded away.
The need for seal oil disappeared and now today, seals are protected.
A long haul away from the days back when -
Cutters, brigs and schooners, dared through mist and haze,
as the cut-throats, thieves and pirates, plied their bloody trade.
With-in a loose alliance they colonized the islands,
along the southern coast in the Bass Strait sealing days.
71(sventy one)
7days 1person,
from monday to sunday,
you work and toil,
all to make a liveing,
in a world like an illusion,
where the mentality of men ,
control the true nature of life,
money introduced as the only necessity to trade,
like a game some with contacts,
some unfortunate,
7days 1person,
every 7days of your life,
you pass through good and deficult times of life,
tradeing your health for money,
just to earn a life,
what a comedy...........,
every 52, 7days,
you mark your birthday,
yet the same old circumstances still control your life,
same story on the third world contries,
what a calamity,
7days 1person,
in your closet,
tears from depression run down your eyes,
cos you see,
something is not right,
yet you are scard to voice it out, like it is,
pretending like all is good,
liveing like you feel great,
every 7days you fight for change,
you keep struggling for a better tommorow,
always! you do your best,
beliveing that it shall be well,
hard work is the way to sucess they say,
but how long will the body bear the pains of stress?
7days same struggle,
7days same condition,
7days same people,
everyone has a cross to bear,
but all in,
7days,
individually 1person,
just like,
71(seventy one).
In the darkest of days back in nineteen sixteen,
Daisy worked in a factory where she often saw,
men march to the port embarking for Egypt
to fight for King and Country in a terrible war.
Along with her friends Daisy threw good luck notes,
with their name and address for the soldiers to write,
and Horace, one soldier picked up Daisy’s note,
and to her surprise, his letter arrived.
So from the hundreds of pieces of paper
that littered the road on that march,
Horace and Daisy did not know that day
they had met as he sailed away.
And so their letters travelled both ways.
Now there are photographs close to their hearts.
Daisy met Horace’s family a long time before,
the war was over that kept them apart.
So from the hundreds of pieces of paper
that littered the road on that march,
Horace and Daisy did not know that day
they had met as he sailed away.
On May twenty-first, nineteen seventy-one,
Fifty-five years later there’s a year turning gold,
In Daisy’s sister’s Greensborough home -
There’s a toast from their kin,
thankful for Daisy’s note Horace found to unfold.
So from the hundreds of pieces of paper
that littered the road on that march,
Horace and Daisy did not know that day
they had met as he sailed away -
when Daisy waved her Horace away.
310+ & 71.1 billion dollars
if you live in the US,
the belly of the world’s policeman,
you live with over
310 tax exempted religions---
that’s over 310 groups of
idiots, who get to practice their idiocy
without paying taxes---
it’s estimated that the annual
amount
which is lost by NOT taxing these
idiots,
is
$71.1 billion
a
year.
think for a second
just what this country could do with that
money.
think of the kids that could be educated
in schools that have budgets that do not
DECREASE every ****ing year,
think of the departments in these schools
that would not be CUT &
think of the teachers who would be
gainfully employed & not TERRIFIED of
losing their goddamned jobs,
so that they could breathe for a moment &
spend their time enjoying the process of
exchanging information with the future
most brilliant minds in the world.
do we need to go on about the fact that this
money could go on to help fund
UNIVERSAL health care for americans &
instead of providing further venues for
ignorance?
do we need to talk about the green energy
programs that could be begun with this money
to save our species from frying up like
crisp bacon? how about the jobs that could
come from putting such programs into motion?
let it all bubble up in your head
while another catholic priest gets dragged out
kicking & screaming
from behind the vatican curtain
for molesting a bunch of little boys.
let it all bubble up in your head
while another abortion doctor gets shot or a clinic
gets blown up to smithereens.
let it all bubble up in your head
while another self-made messiah
rapes his harem of young girls, forcing them to
produce his holy spawn on whatever ranch he
pleases, wherever he deems it appropriate &
the next time stem cell research
can save your life or the life of someone you
love,
make sure you remind yourself how valuable
these organizations are.
He said, "Old folks ain't worth a damn. I'm thirty, and if you're
over thirty you ain't nothing."
I said... "That's a lie! I'm seventy-one and young at heart.
He hadn't seen me sunning alone around the bend
by the elevator, he stood waiting with his friends.
And I saw that his Counselor was my age
And I thought of my nine-to-five days
And volunteering in snow, sleet, wind, rain and grime
And the sidewalk manhole in Brooklyn I climbed
And the emotional horse I fell off
And some folks may have had a good laugh
And the skylight I looked up to
And hands that healed and renewed.
And I say, my age is none of my business
I'm seventy-one, and life and me is not yet done.
*