The statement family helps family
Is somewhat of a joke
It's mainly use by a person
Who'll benefit most or for a
Family's favorite who thinks
That they're entitled to
What you have or your time
Mainly money, free childcare or a free
Place to live without helping
With the bills and they'll also try to
Take over your home
Sometimes your family is
Your worst enemy and users
I am having one usual day, as it is, most of the days
I, a misfit, wandering around, since
the ultrasound and incubator, they are ever invasive
The world with the main theme, and the off topic, outlier
A peace, to find solace, within.
You are a tiara, a bracelet a pearl and a teardrop too
When I think about the unbridled, unbundled gone spirits, my lion cubs
They are busy in angling, somewhere, elsewhere.
They grew up too close to a Skokie Swift Childcare, they surely do.
They used to tap around the keyboards, busy and always chatterbox
They hardly open up about radiant ways, as they are always busy to pave the gaps.
On a rainy day, they will be sitting inside with their jersey whims for a newer day
And I will be, the ever undecisive, is it the sky blue or the deepest wave, a say or a may
I wish I could be sitting around you, just to see the pristine may
A butterfly stroke on a lonely morn, a red leaf, and a grasshopper day!
I would move mountains for all the working mothers:
To untangle our communities and have someone see their true colors.
To stop mothers from carrying the brunt of communal dysfunction,
To guide a little cultural deconstruction,
To redirect the debilitating parental judgment,
To provide more support from the government,
To end the overstimulated etiquettes that have always been known,
To deconstruct those parenting standards we’ve outgrown,
To assist with the impossible parenting choices,
To hear these working mothers' voices.
To help homes stay financially viable,
To create childcare that is reliable,
To become a work-life balance advocate,
To build postpartum support that's adequate,
To support the countless and endless asks,
To end the pressure of the myriad of household tasks.
To stop being accustomed to survival mode.
It's time to start enjoying the motherly road,
Because the weight of being someone’s everything is as heavy as it is light,
Moving Mountains for them seems right.
4 years of happiness
Not really bliss
But something between
I had friends
Church friends
School friends
I lead a youth group
People showed up
It was fun
Church coffee shop
Everybody loved us
Even the grumps
Childcare
I met young parents
I watched their kids
Hope and expectation
I was meeting my goals
I was living
Groups at the library
For young folk like me
Everybody was hopeful
It's no wonder so many
Remember so fondly
The years of positivity
When people had hope instead of expectations
Joy at the smaller accomplishments
And forgiveness for your failures
Let me put your parenting skills
Under the microscope, my thrills!
You share your food with the young
You eat, regurgitate for the fledging
What childcare, what love & nurturing
You, bird parents take turns food hunting
I adore how you bring food to the nest
You feed the chicks as if you don’t rest!
You, dogs and cats hunt and share the kill
Mother dogs help the pups to eat to the fill
I see animals bring down prey and feast
In a social order, in packs, this, that beast
I see parent animals teach their young
To walk, hunt & who says that`s wrong?
Apes & simians feed each other when caring
For the wounded or the ill, when …yes, dating!
I don’t know whether elephants teach their young
Courting, but yes, food choices & a good tongue!
" New World
Corvid heard, Health officials
Social distancing guidance issues
Corvid dismissal
Schools what
No longer taught
Everyone doesn't have internet
Work places still reject
Keep away 6 feet and yet
Restaurants and bars no smoking here
Can't sit next to me I don't drink beer
Childcare workers day cares can house under 10 children Parents train your child just to stop sneezing and breathing Wash them hands coughing in arm inside your elbow
Mass transit no thank you I'm going to walk
No more fist bumps no friends for lunch
6 feet distance 6 ft apart health of officials help us not
Just what is monies figurative materialistic allowances
For providing services and material things there's pains
And pangs in sufferings deaths throughout the lands
Sinners, Saints, Politicians, Medical, Religious leaders
of provided hope no long-suffering stepping aside Corvid New World Order"
Love of his life he wed because
although no longer young, she was
quite childlike.
Not able to conceive, she cried!
Once pregnant though, she nearly died
from childbirth!
But well-prepared were they to bring
their new son home, where everything
was childproof.
She spoiled their son; she’d always stay
at home for him; no need had they
for childcare.
Their son’s now grown. There’s too much of
an empty space. Now his dear love
feels childfree.
May 13, 2020 for Joseph May's Compounding the Verse Poetry Contest
And though it seems like a
long lost dream,
Know that we’ve got your back
This insanity won’t last forever
It’s bound to fade away fast
Doctors, nurses and
Childcare workers
Police and Firemen
Pilots, Preists and Rabbis
Teachers, Family and Friends
We all rely on you
When you do what you do
You do what you can
For the old and the young
The rich and the poor
We send all our love and little bit more
Here’s hoping this all will
ring true
For tomorrow and all the days yet to come
We all know what to do
When I was young we never had a naughty chair,
But we were invited to sit on a chair,
And we usually took up the option to sit on that chair,
Or should I say a chair ,
Because it was really the nearest chair.
If Dad or Mum were doing something that we could not participate in,
It would be a chair we would be planted in,
A chair we could think in,
Watch in,
And learn in.
My parents may have been far from perfect,
But their attitude to our personal safety was perfect,
Their understanding of the observing stage was also perfect,
All of which made us use tools to perfect,
Our abilities until they were almost perfect.
I never forgot about the chair that was not naughty,
As an Early Childcare teacher I found many a chair that was not naughty,
My own children sat on a chair that was not naughty,
Now we have a grandson, who we hope will not be too naughty,
To sit on a chair that is not naughty.
Aware, armchair
Cross hair, forebear.
Compare Despair,
Frontiere-Frontier,
~
Beware, forbear
My prayer.
Childcare, Bus fare
Healthcare, Home-care
~
My prayer
Mankind not kind
Not there, not here
Compare Despair,
~
Frontiere-Frontier,
Beware, forbear
My prayer.
8/30/19
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr.© 2019
Late evening flash
Moist breezy glimpse;
Abrupt rain
~~~~~~~~~
Strange journey
Dreamy silhouettes;
Vivid backdrop
~~~~~~~~~
Hazy skyline
Concrete toothpicks;
City skyscrapers
~~~~~~~~~
By city fringe
Curious onlookers;
Random commotion
~~~~~~~~~
New park bench
Metallic sparkle;
Cold stainless steel
~~~~~~~~~
Childcare centre
Small people congregate;
Life at play
~~~~~~~~~
By this park bench
Two lovers kiss;
Midnight tryst
~~~~~~~~~
Jog and log
Fitness agenda;
Gym workout
~~~~~~~~~
Last day here
September goodbyes;
Rain for tears
~~~~~~~~~
Book bazaar
Sun-baked tomes;
Wisdom ageing
~~~~~~~~~
Tea leaves wet
Hot brew swirls;
Aromatic interlude
~~~~~~~~~
Old-time ambience
Espresso moment;
Cafe glimpses
~~~~~~~~~
Rainbow sky
Promises kept;
Surreal feeling
~~~~~~~~~
Leon Enriquez
04 October 2016
Singapore
Morning drizzle
Skyline looks teary;
Jogging feet struggle
~~~~~~~~~
New penthouse suite
By midtown place;
Blessings of peace
~~~~~~~~~
Time moves swiftly
Flying away;
Seize interlude
~~~~~~~~~
Small talk empties
Chit-chat delays;
Time oozes fast
~~~~~~~~~
Two black birds
Morning choral;
Balcony duet
~~~~~~~~~
Tropical heatwave
Humid sticky sweat;
Air-con relief
~~~~~~~~~
Mall sales boomerangs
Petty touting;
Urgent campaign
~~~~~~~~~~
Toy dog runs barking
Pink hair dye;
Same as lady master
~~~~~~~~~~
Childcare kids
Sing-song repetition;
Old nursery rhymes
~~~~~~~~~
Fragments of writes
Verse lines on-the-fly;
Haiku mood swing
~~~~~~~~~
Shopping lists
Foodstuff to buy;
Procure satisfaction
~~~~~~~~~
Time beyond
Chance upon;
Space now on
~~~~~~~~~
Mailbox full
Nobody's home;
Other matters call
~~~~~~~~~
Leon Enriquez
10 July 2016
Singapore
Cosmopolitan Magazine!
The bible of my youth
How to be a ‘modern girl’
In this brave new modern world
Pages of ‘recipes’ for how to live my life
How to be a bright young thing
And for later,
How it would be when I became a wife
Because you see
According to ‘Cosmo’
It wasn’t going to be
Just how it had always been
For generations of women from the North
It promised a new dawn
Where men would be
Sensitive to emotions
Active in childcare
Attentive around the home
They wouldn’t just come in
Flop in front of the TV
Expecting everything to be done
‘Cosmo’ promised me a modern kind of man
Believing it (every word)
To be true
I proudly showed my Nan
And declared!
Nan! This is what husbands are going to be like
When I have one!
Nan just sighed
Shook her head and said
“Not round here they’re not!”
I swear madam
That your manners
Are worthy of a village dope
And your ambitions are tremendously humongous
At the expense of someone else;
And you are also so lazy
That there’s no time at all
To manage some cleanup and cooking
And no ironing and washing.
Childcare also not conducive
And job prohibited at all
But to the art of shopping
You dedicate your every day.
And to sum up this conversation:
Your ego – size of railway station
You also wither on a vine
(Above means that your talents
Are completely wasted).
Discrete Haiku 1
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Slow morning stroll
Walking meditation;
Beneath heritage fig tree
~~~~~~~~~
Miniature dog barks
Squeaky voice tiny;
Big dog curious
~~~~~~~~~
November nap
Haze free moment;
Somnolent afternoon
~~~~~~~~~
Joy unveils
Emotional senses;
Ambrosia peach
~~~~~~~~~
Children gather
Two by two;
Childcare teacher guides
~~~~~~~~~
Playground escapades
Childhood restored;
For a short while
~~~~~~~~~
Savvy social media hype
Mountains from molehills;
Skewed opinions
~~~~~~~~~
Human tragedy
Daily news highlights;
Hatred gathers moss
~~~~~~~~~
Compassionate love
Tonic food;
Good for all
~~~~~~~~~
Leon Enriquez
20 November 2015
Singapore
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