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Cranky Old Man



Remember this poem when you next meet
 an older person who you might brush
 aside without looking at the young
soul within. We will all, one day,
 be there too! Anonymous
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
I saw this poem on Facebook
and copied and pasted on here
for ever one to read.
And it is so sad and heart breaking
the man who wrote this poem was
 in a nursing home
it had no name
It just said Anonymous.
PLEASE SHARE THIS POEM







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