If I were twenty years younger
I would have spent the last three days outside doing yardwork
And I would have loved it!
Seventy-three is not fifty-three
I meander and limp now, there is arthritis in my ankles
My hands are no longer clipper-cutting-strength-ready
Things I used to do are implausible now
My advice to you is this – stay young as long as you can
Eat the right foods, exercise, try not to break an arm, foot or ankle
Enjoy every day while you still have eyesight and working limbs
Savor each day
So, you can look back too and say
“I remember those days of youth
Categories:
yardwork, age,
Form: Free verse
Between working in a woodshop and doing yardwork - he will learn how to clean
Categories:
yardwork, work,
Form: Monoku
A certain thirty-nine-year-old man who is blatantly Pro-Life
Never thought it worthwhile to take for himself the wife
Confessed to me that he has ten children by the same woman
He has the reproductive habits of some notable vermin!
This single woman has spent her life, thus far, raising his spawn
A man who never gave a thought to putting a condom on,
Told me he has never changed a diaper or nursed a sick kid
Or wondered where his next meal is coming from, heaven forbid!
His children, classic cases of those deprived of a loving father,
Will likely be a burden on society for longer than they’d rather
Now consider that one of the ten might become a serial killer ~~
Wouldn’t it have been better if that one had been an abort?
Be that as it may, worst is that they will continue to consort.
What are pro-lifers doing to give poor kids better living styled?
Seeming to care more for a collection of cells than a living child.
Written June 27, 2022
[Incidentally, this is a true account of a man
I met yesterday who does yardwork for cash
to avoid child support!]
Categories:
yardwork, child abuse, perspective,
Form: Couplet
Though the 70's and 80's he sat
headphones and guitar
lost in the safety of music.
a toke or two could ease the pain
of the wrong woman
stuck
and the sweet guitar could work away
the regret and anguish of another day
disappointment waited
when he went to bed
a cold back
white pajamas
nothing said
so he sat in the sun, watching seasons past
after yardwork
after dark
after holiday parties
heartwound deepening
as his fingers made
exquisite music
keeping his soul alive
Categories:
yardwork,
Form: Free verse