Old age

All posts in the Old age category

HOW LONG IS LOONEY?

Published July 24, 2019 by Nan Mykel

If we live long enough

it’s gonna be rough.

Tell-tale signs of age

spoken off the cuff

betray us and oh

how long and how sad

will it get to be

before…until…we

write bad verse, yet don’t hesitate

to remember to meditate

on what’s gone before and what

lies ahead instead?

Hey nonny nonny,

honey, if it’s not funny

why do we laugh at

our forget-me-nots?

When will we touch base

and head for home?

Not funny, dammit,

unless you’re like me–

easier to laugh

than it is to pee.

Ha ha got you there.

You expected to “cry.”

I know poor taste

when e’er I try

and will until my

looney runs dry.

Ouch! Tell me I

didn’t write this…

Old Man Fred –flash fiction for d’Verse

Published June 15, 2019 by Nan Mykel

Although age and poverty had taken its toll, when far away an interrupted cry woke him from his sleep, he shuddered. He knew he lacked boundaries, was too easily empathic. That tendency had led him to panhandling in the evening of his life. It was getting more and more difficult to arise from his seated position on the sidewalk and retrieve his upturned hat from the pavement before him.

Someone at the Center had stolen his flute, so he had nothing left to offer passersby than the one song he could remember all the words to, Old Man River.

The children still stood round and begged their parent for a dime to drop into his hat. The children stared. The adults avoided his eyes. He thanked them all.

128 words