Juvenility meets senility
Childlike to childish formality
Nursing home abnormality
Inmates extend hospitality
I run as if they have a malady
Old men
sit in wheelchair
drool
that call, a face
porcelain
pressed against glass
and dead eyes wrought
from an attic room
watching us
her name badge was
irrelevant
“No, those top rooms
are not used, full
of junk and all locked up”
yet the face watched us
leave; into
the further ghosts
of night
Once there was a nursing home man called Fred,
at night he was found in an old gals bed;
with a great big happy smile,
his pajamas in a pile;
when questioned- "THIS is my dead wife" he said !
________________________________
August 27, 2020 (Repost from 2019)
Poetry/Limerick/nursing home FRED
Copyright Protected, ID 20-1281-737-03
All Rights Reserved, 2020, Constance La France
Submitted into the contest, Living It Up For Laughter New/Old
sponsor, Chantelle Anne Cooke
First Place
Old men
sit in wheelchairs, drool
warehouses for people
Apple blossom boogie
Whoopee Whoop Whoop
Double time and triple time
Have some vegetable soup
Fats Dominoes in the hallway
Shuffleboard too
Twist with Chubby Checkers
Add morphine to my stew
I’m catching glimpses
Dancing round my nursing room bed
The nurse starts screaming loudly
I guess I’ve fallen on my head
Give her extra pills someone whispers.
Dancing with Elvis’ blue suede shoes
I shut my eyes and pretend
I don’t hear these nuts and cuckoos
Prancing around the hallway
The alarms go off so loud
I’ve lost a lot of dignity
In this weird old people crowd
They sit and stare
Some not aware
Sit lay bed alone
Lights turn on
Under
Nursing Home Care
Once there was a nursing home man called Fred,
at night he was found in an old gals bed;
with a great big happy smile,
his pajamas in a pile;
when questioned- "THIS is my dead wife" he said !
_____________________________
May 19, 2019
Added after contest judged, June 11, 2019-
Poetry/Limerick/Nursing Home Fred
Copyright Protected, ID 19-1145-321-02
All Rights Reserved. Written under Pseudonym.
(Syllable Count 10,10,7,7,10)
Written for the contest, Bawdy Limericks
sponsor, Tania Kitchin
First Place
During lunch I announced when I retire I am going to go to jail.
What?
Jail, I repeated. I will rob a bank or something.
The three others laughed.
Think about it, I told them. How much do nursing homes cost?
They started to think about it and discussed how much they
Were already paying for their own mothers
$4,500 a month $8,000 a month, $10,000 a month.
Jail is free right? To the prisoner anyway, not to the rest of us.
I could play cards, make lots of new friends, and maybe write poetry
New story ideas I’ll bet, maybe some really juicy new story ideas!
My family would save thousands of dollars, maybe even tens of thousands
Of dollars.
How would you get in? I would rob a bank, I told them. No one laughed.
They were thinking…..
Then all three burst out laughing.
I could! I insisted, convincing no one, not even myself.
Life Spent - All Alone
When I spend time at the old nursing home
to see a loved one in our family,
it breaks my heart to see those all alone
just sitting, waiting, by the wall to see
if I might be someone they'll know today
who came to visit, spend a little while-
show them they are remembered in some way;
so sad to pass each waiting- as I smile,
pained eyes meet mine, and anguish fills my heart-
they search for love- to feel that they belong.
Day after day, abandoned- not a part
of family or friends for which they long.
They sit and stare with mournful faces raised-
lined up against the wall, alone and dazed.
Sandra M. Haight
~1st Place~
Contest: Choices
Sponsor: Sara Kendrick
Judged: 06/20/2019
~2nd Place~
Contest: Abandon 2
Sponsor: Brenda Chiri
Judged: 07/25/2018
Discarded souls in the hall,
No one comes to visit, no one calls.
Heads hanging with hearts of grief,
Waiting for their end and God’s relief,
What happened to the lives once so strong?
Young and vibrant, it hasn’t been that long,
A soul still behind bright clear eyes,
A mind trapped because the body dies,
Are these God’s people in this place?
Or merely matter taking up time and space,
Clinging to past memories and dreams,
With the help of God and Angels unseen,
Will wait for the day when God will call,
To end the hell of being discarded in the hall
some come in
they look for friend
they have mabe a grim
very much
need that love touch
be aware
they have a soul not just old
needs indeed
NURSING HOME CARE
some or very old
there no longer gold
no lie
just there to die
its at time treated unkind
and misuesd
its the
NURSING HOME BLUES
When bread
is this good
a morsel
will suffice
and when wine
is this good
a sip is enough
for the wraiths
and specters
coming toward
the altar now
on crutches
walkers
in wheel chairs
celebrating
the last Easter
some of them
will know
as they await
a resurrection
of their own.
Donal Mahoney
He waits for a woman,
Who’s shift was changed years ago,
But yesterday told him,
"Visit you on Wednesdays now "
So now he waits for her,
and Wednesday to come.
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