Winter Ailments
January diseases make their customary rounds,
Coughs, sneezes and sniffles all going around;
Cold and flu bugs ride the indoor air currents,
waiting to become the next unwelcome occupant
of unwary human lungs and ripe nasal passages –
unwashed hands or exposed faces encourage attacks.
Sometimes occurrences creep up all of a sudden,
medical ailments dismissed now seize your attention.
What was overlooked will no longer be ignored,
need a professional's help to get your health restored.
Fears can be dispelled and facts verified,
Real problem addressed, antibiotics prescribed.
Difficulties are handled, dosages absorbed
knowing improvement is coming is adored.
Sometimes the most effective step here
is to get some help to see your way clear.
Better health is just a few more steps ahead,
Determined fortitude will put you in good stead.
Do you exist just to survive
or would you like to make decisions
to help your body thrive
Five years of endurance from the age of ten
nightly menu of mashed potato, cold roast meat
no greens no fruit,nothing else, if you didn't like the food it was hunger
There was not another thing to eat
Daily morning breakfast, nutritionally no better
a bowl of corn flakes and a cup of tea
Consumed in a household of two smokers
good health could never hope to be
Many coughs, colds, tired
and aching in the ears
Life a daily challenge
full of many fears
Boils upon the legs the head
often near the nose
Fatigue, fall asleep in class
a life of daily woes
Adversity has a purpose
it makes us stronger or we fall
Decisions to be made
when our backs are to the wall
And the decision that was made fifty years ago
turned his life around
Modified his eating patterns
the old days had now run aground
In his house there are no smokers
a large variety of orqanic greens, nuts and fruits
His exceptional state of well being reflects
the selection of his culinary pursuits
In this modern high-tech age
surely they could have a fix
for the common ailments that abound
that knocks us off into our grtm cage
Sore throats, colds, and a blocked nose
after centuries on Earth, they still exist
why can't a cure be found in this time?
all they say is continue to blow your nose
What a sorry picture this conveys
new heart, new knees and hips are done
but the common cold can't be cured
have we really progressed in our days?
Here I am fighting these ailments
for a whole week, it's knocked me down
with no sign of a change in coming days
never blew my nose so much, quite a scent
But one day it will end
breathe clearly once again
Sooner, maybe than I think
OH, please get me on the mend
(I had a terrible cold a few weeks ago, and these thoughts came to mind of how colds still exist in our modern age)
Fog over the inlet
until water and air waltz together.
colds ears muffled by the dank air.
Grebes and Coots colonize this tributary.
The ocean is close
you can feel the tidal pull of it
the immensity of it,
even through the thick haze
it seems to tug at my small boat.
I hear now, the distant screaking
of coastal gulls.
Trawling fingers in the dark water
mellifluent coils pluck and pull.
Later, sitting in the cabin
I wonder why I did not push
further out from the estuary
advancing towards
the deep sound of the breakers.
I yawn, sup some hot tea from a mug,
smile,
comfortable,
that's the reason -
way too comfortable.
To strengthen the people within
The colds of winter
The melting of spring
We as folk in happiness oh the joy it brings
An area beneath the surface
An area above the artic domes
A peace strengthened by the artic tones
America your ambition
Pur so so ere ed distincted why
A unison of ageless together ess
Asked the writer why
Oh ye in tranquil beauty
A sovereigned distincted why
The peace of peoples existence
answers the the humbled cry
Unison in our endeavors
To charm the world into peace
Us unified together
From south, West, north and east
I was looking for a flower,
A flower to fill me with love
The sun had burned me too much,
The cold had bit me too hard
And my leaves were frail,
My roots weak
I found my flower,
So beautiful and sweet
She taught me the secrets
What would keep me alive
From the sun that burned too much
From the cold that bit too hard
How am I supposed to move on oh flower
When you're not here anymore,
To tell me what to do about the wind
And the many seasons that change?
How am I supposed to move on oh flower,
When you're not here anymore
To hear how I battled the wind
And the many seasons that change?
Oh my flower, I'm in pain
But grateful I am
That in many suns, in many colds, in many winds, and the changing seasons
I found you
A flower to fill me with love
Living under the influence of unhealthy food
Is not a topic that has been frequently chewed
Unlike its well-known friend: alcohol abuse
The unhealthy food topic is more a recluse
In the past food talk centered around a diet
And half of the population would no doubt try it
Thinking that their weight is mostly what matters
Followed by comments that hopefully flatter
Mostly everyone gets sick once in a while
Or had colds of which we all have a large file
But being under the influence of unhealthy food
Is a thought that’s usually far less valued
Bottle and can labels that come from a barrel
List that drinking alcohol may cause some peril
Yet when has a package of food listed in part
Stating: consuming this stuff may be bad for the heart
But don’t think that I’m looking for Fed oversight
There’s too much already that it feels like a blight
No, it’s all about vital self-education
To help reduce poisonous medications
Or having to visit a health center some night
That have popped up everywhere; speaking of blight
This is more of a write, to help bring to the light
That bad food is like getting drunk every night
A poet once travelled to a distant land,
On their own, with nothing but a pad in hand.
Shivers and sweats, hots and colds,
Crossing places, new and old,
They suffered through plagues, purges and illness
Caught as a prisoner, kept as witness.
Wars and Kingdoms rose,
Soldiers and Kings fell,
Plains to deserts,
And deserts to sands,
The fate of the world,
Written down by his hands.
Hundreds of years, now the poet’s work fades,
Video and Static and Paperwork grenades,
The pad of his is all torn up and damp,
His tears flicker the light of the poet’s lamp,
So as he sits there all alone,
Looking at the lands he once called home,
He sits back and writes one more time,
“My life was fun whilst I was alive”
If I could be any animal I might choose to be a mouse.
Finding my way by touching walls in a person’s house.
Mice do not get sick, even if they eat food that is bad.
They never get colds or pneumonia like my tired dad.
Their teeth are strong; their incisors never stop growing.
mice have no electric bills, they have no stress of owing.
They can crawl into the smallest places too.
Wait! Is that a mouse trap with sticky glue beside your shoe?
Your silence speaks volumes to my heart covered by toxic fumes only to be delayed when ever you are in my facility I begin to change into the man I strive to be pen pricked needle make pictures on my back I've suffered greatly being that of a good man in a world that seems it despise me thunder shakes the inside of the old me I shall takeover and blossom holding a bottle of sovereignty I shiver unmatched colds leading to the mindset I sit high
upon bleeding on cotton filled bedding my feelings are damaged beyond repairing
casting winds forging
blistering bitter colds breathe
winter’s whispering
~
falling flakes of snow
fidget drops of whiten dust
snow storm rains on us
1/18/24
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr. 2024©
My eyes are sore from weeping,
Heart, not up for drinking,
Hands, cold from writing,
Mind, ached from worrying
Smile, vanished from faking...
These thoughts are dumb,
The colds’ made me numb,
What I thought was within my thumb,
What I thought I’d become...
While waiting for sleep to come
A cough and a sneeze
another tissue please
Nose runny throat sore
fatigue and feeling wore
Slight fever lost appetite
wanting it to end to feel right.
Vicks rub on the chest
a little under and in the nose
Wool socks upon the feet
gotta warm those toes
Plop plop fizz fizz
tickles down the hatch
Couch drops and a cozy couch
for those daytime naps.
Steam the room with a vapo machine
and unclog sinuses breathe right
Extra blankets and big fluffy pillow
with NyQuil to sleep all night
Eat hot chicken soup from a can
drink 7 UP in orange juice
Speak with a funny cold's voice
mask up if you are out on the loose.
The older you are the longer they stay
stubborn head colds won't go way
Suck on lozenges for that throat
resist chewing them just don't
And one day you will wake anew
that old head cold is through with you.
in this mug chicken noodles
spousey makes whole caboodles
evry single day
chases colds away
gets me back to my doodles.
Amble through to the forest's trees
Front and center if you might believe
Fronds of many you shall see
Fluttering to rest by autumnal breeze
Gaily sparrows chirp as pleased
Peck by Peck as appeased
Such a sound so sweet to all
This is a time we know as fall
Gusts of wind, grazing leaves
Blowing through this very street
Everyone near and far
Joined together, stare afar
Rest to summer, yet before colds wake
Pumpkin carving, leaves are raked
So please stop and take a moment to breath
And be as bright as the autumn leaves
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