Monday, April 8, 2013

A Cranky Old Man (Poem)


(An anonymous poem left by a 92-year-old man who died in an Australian nursing home)


What do you see nurses?                 
     What do you see?
What are you thinking
     when you're looking at me?
A cranky old man,
     not very wise

Uncertain of habit                            
     with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food
     and makes no reply.
When you say in a loud voice          
     'I do wish you'd try!'
Who seems not to notice                  
     the things that you do.
And forever is losing
     a sock or shoe?
Who, resisting or not             
     lets you do as you will,
With bathing and feeding     
     the long day to fill?
Is that what you're thinking?
     Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes, nurse   
     you're not looking at me.

I'll tell you who I am              
     as I sit here so still,
As I do at your bidding,
     as I eat at your will.

I'm a small child of ten
     with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters
     who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen
     with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now
     a lover he'll meet.

A groom soon at twenty
     my heart gives a leap.
Remembering, the vows
     that I promised to keep.

At Twenty-Five, now
     I have young of my own.
Who need me to guide
     and a secure happy home?

A man of thirty
     my young now grown fast,
Bound to each other
     with ties that should last.

At forty, my young sons         
     have grown and are gone,
But my woman is beside me
     to see I don't mourn.

At fifty, once more,
     Babies play 'round my knee,
Again, we know children
     my loved one and me.

Dark days are upon me
     my wife is now dead.
I look at the future
     I shudder with dread.
For my young are all rearing
     young of their own.
And I think of the years
     and the love that I've known.

I'm now an old man
     and nature is cruel.
It's jest to make old age
     look like a fool.

The body, it crumbles
     grace and vigor, depart.
There is now a stone
     where I once had a heart.

But inside this old carcass
     a young man still dwells,
And now and again
     my battered heart swells

I remember the joys
     I remember the pain.
And I'm loving and living
     life over again.

I think of the years, all too few
     gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact
     that nothing can last.

So open your eyes, people
     open and see.
Not a cranky old man

Look closer                     See ME!!


P Michael Biggs
Offering Hope
Encouragement Inspiration
One Word at a Time


No comments:

Post a Comment