The young me was the best of me
for having parents life was free
No worries no hurries being a boy
living as a kid the world to enjoy
Everything new and wonders to see
anything possible in a world of dreams
Than adulthood happens with responsibility
get educated and work for necessities
You work for money to pay your bills
build up debt life now has few thrills
Parents old and now they are the child
life upside down but you trod on somehow
Married with kids and a mortgage home
credit cards, few savings, need a loan
Somehow you manage as your spouse works to
live simple and always more to do
Are needs needed are wants something real
live with less can retirement be fulfilled
Old now and you downsized
grandchildren now rule your lives
Somehow things not as bad as they used to be
reflecting back life was good to me
Travel and see what as a child wanted to see
realizing life in whole was the best of me.
Severing of ties with our allies.
Court orders blatantly defied.
Plans to privatize, those federal
agencies now downsized..
Green card holders traumatized..
A thousand cuts.
A thousand bleeds.
Our wounded democracy falls
to it's knees,,
Lawyers and judges receive death threats.
Freedom of speech being suppressed.
Deportation with out due process.
Defunding colleges and PBS..
A thousand cuts.
A thousand bleeds.
Our democracy hemorrhages.
Our rights recede, as we
sleep walk into Autocracy...
A consistently poor wage
Licenses rage:
An ugly fight against the cage,
Steady enveloping of stagnant wage,
A temper warning every wedge,
Rising while lowered with vintage.
Hirers open a sterile page,
Not a complimenting line for a sage:
Reflections of his usage,
Not a half paragraph for his adage…
The low income earner won’t this manage,
Nor life in his fatiguing village:
The vast hum drums sight,
Of farm-tools tauntingly bright,
For all their promises of fast tillage,
Putting The Townie at a disadvantage.
Any hopelessly downsized wage,
Is cash that the teeth sets on edge,
The Hired white with shock
Over Hirer’s heart of steely lock.
As the passion engaged
the love came
upon the stars
the wind blows
directly into the river
the passionate of the two
were just beneath the sea
a spiral downsized
into a deep love
stars above, whispering winds
as the flow of the lake runs slow
nevertheless, a connection
wind blowing from all directions
It is a day of remembrance
tender love, happiness
smiles and glow
forevermore.
something biting at my feet
something tasting mighty sweet
I'm in this to deep
the flooding waters
these tears I'm crying
am I alive or dying
I'm trying to relate
to love and not hate
look at me now a downsized clown
awaiting a stimulus to pay for my frown
while in this reality
I'm a slave brought for a fee
until God made my master's release me
par the coarse
I spoke loud my voice
now readily I'm righteous freed
a victim of humanity conformity
I've been to hell once
don't want to go again
this is why I'm in full repentance stage
O' Lord my God, Jesus help me
10/2/2021
Written words by James Edward Lee Sr.© 2021
Mrs Potato Head
Mrs Potato Head's image surprised
That can't be me it's someone else I see
I still feel young in my heart and pint-sized
The mirror tells lies, it’s true believe me.
That can't be me it's someone else I see
She'd an idea that'd get weight shifted
The mirror tells lies, it’s true believe me
Then cut herself to a chip, weight lifted.
She'd an idea that'd get weight shifted
I still feel young in my heart and pint-sized
Then cut herself to a chip, weight lifted
Mrs Potato Head's image surprised.
18th July 2021
Pantoum Rhyme 1 Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Eve Roper
Image no. 3
Communication
Talking, Singing, Dancing,
Writing, Drawing, Praying,
Signing, Listening, Seeing,
Reading, Cooing, Touching,
Bridges in a list few,
That allow One to Two.
Or Expansion of One,
If the Ability to Be Common,
Is Ever Shrunk, Compromised,
The Feelings Become Numb,
We are Un-Mistakenly Downsized!
Laryngitis, Soundless, Sightless,
Senseless, Absence of Hand-Eye 'Ation,
Robs Togetherness, Socialization,
Leaves Us Cast Out of the Nest,
Pilfers the Spirit of Essence,
Drastically Diminished & Lessened,
But Perhaps the Worst Singleness,
Is to be Alone in a Crowd,
Where They Choose Their Game,
Foreignly, Ours is Not the Same,
Then, Sidetracked On Our Own,
We Grow in Dishes Petri,
Rhythmically Communicating Poetry,
Layered Verse Reaffirming Terse,
Each Syncopation a Prayer,
Gratitude Individually Communed,
Catalyzing December to June!
DOWNSIZED DARKNESS
somewhere out of sight
I see the darkness downsized
down to the size of …
a marble like broken glass
that shalled be walked on
2/21/18
written by James Edward Lee Sr.©2018
Innocence has its travails of
Losing the true identity of
Being touchy versus being sensitive.
I ruined many beautiful moments
Forsook my joys to reel in entanglements
Of lively public bantering as being abusive
A mild joke was a jab of cold heartedness
Brooding for days over the other's rudeness
Undervaluing true love by being hyperreactive
I left old love for foreign shores
Not on basis of personal wars
But reasons much more elaborative
Long distances and free of heart
I downsized my kiddish touchiness as advert
My heart became ruminatively introspective
I realised no man could live up to his demeanour and heart
A reversal of attitude transformed me with better art
I pined for his undemanding nature, now so laudative
I returned with a list of do's and dont's in my small fist
Loaded with more love for my compulsive humorist
Being a little calmative, relationships become more attractive
April 22, 2016
Sponsor: Cyndi MacMillan
I accuse ..... Part 1
My inner hedonistic self long to villainy inclined
Dwelling too long on flamboyance and enshrined
A morbid,horrible indeed skirt chaser
Endeavoring to beguile women and maneuver
Blaming it all on Satan's duplicitous whispers
Spurning to ditch eavesdropping physical beauties
Rolling with the punches yet persevered
Dragging my heels to relinquish and never repented
Our next door annihilating the cats we home-produced
Who have gormandized his rabbits and livestock downsized
Butted in on his weary sleeping pillow
Mating loudly,frequently and aggrandized his sorrow
Yet could medication be of any use
To what a whole epoch has abused ?
Abdelwaheb Dhaou.
A Homeless prayer
Dear Father, now I lay me down to sleep,
Thank you for the Newspapers people leave,
We lay the papers as blankets and sheets.
If I should die before I wake, I pray
Someone will see hope in my family.
And please bless my Beth she works tirelessly
In her heart always believing in me,
Even when the factory downsized me.
God bless the people on streets that pass bye
Unable to see my family tried.
Bless you for keeping my children healthy,
Though the baby has bad teeth, hard to see,
But thank you for these beautiful babies.
Finally Father,
Please keep my family safe on the streets,
My son's being teased about his soiled jeans,
Hope we remain friends,
Amen.
I watched the T.V. late last night,
and watched corporate Nazi's try to explain
their plight.
Cheshire, dollar grinning C.E.O.'s
justified moving from the cities
that paid their bills.
Tax breaks, easements, incentives
and local blood were not enough
to keep them in the neighborhood.
I watched the T.V. late last night,
heard the catch in the throat of some
kindly corporate chief that regretted
letting go of some of his old friends in the ranks.
But this is war and you know
scorched earth and torture help
the "fittest" show a profit.
"Heil" to the fourth!
Announce it loud and clear.
From Nam to Faluja we see
the ghost of Smedley Butler.
They don't need no stinkin' Hitler
and downsized his butt
more than sixty years ago.
I watched the T.V. late last night,
fell asleep and dreamed a bit
of pathetic scheming company types
at some cosmic Nuremburg.
One by one they answer charges with
the same refrain. "It wasn't me. It wasn't me.
I answered to the stockholders.
It's them you need to blame."
Bonsai living art -
culture in minature
That dark cloud is back
yes, I feel it starting to drip
It's leaky contents is swelling
he's lost
again.
He works hard
he is never out of work
except, last month
weeks passed,
he's lost.
He had work
we breathed ealier
made plans
not to celebrate,
dig out.
After two weeks
they downsized
he is still six five
to my five six
I'm lost.
That dark cloud is backk
it's just hovering now
it's load is about to drop
hopefully not on my head
bucket anyone.
We are half a century
too old they say
not to our face
so, what are we to do?
live anyway. . .
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