When You Come Full Circle
When references expire and culture sours
you don’t teach an old dog new tricks
You keep a lifeline up your sleeve
Pray not to trip and fall over
When strippers win Grammys
And rappers praise their crotches
You wonder what it will be like
to be put out to pasture
You look like your mother
and are proud of it
You play hooky from time clocks
and read the beatniks
You can still speak gibberish
But not emoji
You LOL
and mute the rest
You make your own bed
but don’t do the dishes
Your knees buckle
and your implants are teeth
When bells and whistles
replace on and off switches
you wait for bluebirds
make final playlist wishes
You forget pans
burning on the stove
but not the nursery rhymes
you learned long ago
You come full circle
You’re all thumbs
You blush and stutter
and hold it in
When temperatures rise
and standards fall
You don’t make promises
or wait on saviors
Your rules are still golden
but sticks and stones can leave you broken
You take advice from children
You’re more like them now
_________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United / dVerse Poets Pub
June 6th, 2021 12:24 am
Oh Colleen, must you be so accurate? You’ve said it very well, as always – so well that I have to acknowledge to myself how much you are speaking for me too. (Are there many of us left who miss the beatniks?) Well, if our rules are still golden, that’s a good thing – even if a tad old-fashioned.
June 6th, 2021 1:45 am
True, as you get older you try to do adventurous things again to recall all the fun you had in your past life.
June 6th, 2021 3:39 am
A rich and truthful tale of life you tell here dear Colleen and how right you are how it comes full circle and is powerfully refreshed gain by our young ones… A pleasure to read you, as always…
June 6th, 2021 5:03 am
Oh, I love everything about your poem! It is spot on, and made me smile. Brilliant write.
June 6th, 2021 7:46 am
Not a single aspect of this poem is off-target, CR, and I esp resonate with the buckling knees, the replacement of buses with bluebirds, and the disdain for Rappers’ crotch-hymns.
.
But I must say this: We Beatniks ain’t goin nowhere. Get used to us.
June 6th, 2021 1:03 pm
There is a very high possibility that the line about implants will have cackling like a lunatic for days. This was so good. Poetic reality we can sing and dance to.
June 6th, 2021 1:17 pm
“your implants are teeth” had me laughing aloud! This is a brilliant, brilliant commentary on aging. I loved every bit of it!
June 6th, 2021 1:18 pm
“You look like your mother” ahaha! Once my Mom asked me about a picture I showed her: What am I doing in your party? Why am I there? (pointing at me in the photo)
I agree with Rosemary. You are accurate. Here’s looking forward to waiting for bluebirds instead of buses.
June 6th, 2021 1:49 pm
Funny, sad, and true. Text-speak abbreviations are what get me. I have to ask for translations! I’ve never looked like my mother, or my father. I do resemble my two brothers, who don’t resemble each other.
June 6th, 2021 5:27 pm
You have smacked us with a whole lot of reality. I too like teeth are implants.. I giggled. Great writing!
June 6th, 2021 8:41 pm
How wonderful is this poem????? Words won’t do it justice. I am soaring, floating, relating. Just read this to my 53 year old daughter. LOL
June 9th, 2021 7:48 pm
I’m in my 30s and I love this poem. It has a real universal quality to it. By the way, so much of this speaks to me too. Enough with the emojis!
June 10th, 2021 6:26 pm
Wonderful writing here! I’m almost in my 20’s and I love this poem too. I resonate with it like a “life goes on” type of way and as the world around us changes, we try to stay the same but feel disheartened as not everything does stay the same.
Those last two lines really hit me. The profundity in them is startling and true.
June 10th, 2021 6:30 pm
So much truth here!
“and your implants are teeth” This line made me laugh! 🙂
Well done.
So, since we are only allowed one post for OLN (all other prompts writers can make multiple posts), I will delete your other post about a poem. I loved that one too. But since you wrote, “this one” I’m assuming this is the one you want posted.
LOVE your writing!
June 10th, 2021 8:27 pm
yeah i feel that, just turn 50 this year and all anyone tells me is how much i look like dad. very well penned, i enjoyed this
June 10th, 2021 8:39 pm
Love it
June 11th, 2021 5:50 am
A great poem of humility in the face of modernity!
June 11th, 2021 12:00 pm
Colleen,
All the paradoxes just add to the muddle and you crystallize so well that they never become easier to manage, you just throw your hands up in the air and, as your brilliant last stanza expresses it, become more like the children with their sticks and stones.
pax,
dora
June 11th, 2021 6:51 pm
So true, all of it.
June 11th, 2021 7:57 pm
Gawd, the changes we go through as we come through— this puts it right out there Colleen, well written.
“Come down off your throne and leave your body alone, somebody must change… I’m near the end and I just ain’t got the time… I’m wasted and I can’t find my way home”
June 11th, 2021 10:34 pm
I always enjoy your poems and this one is no exception. Your line, “You wonder what it will be like to be put out to pasture,” I couldn’t help but think of how nice that pasture sounds! Peace~Jason
June 12th, 2021 2:54 pm
like it. Kind of personal resonance I feel with:
You can still speak gibberish
But not emoji
You LOL
and mute the rest
June 12th, 2021 6:21 pm
Your poem resonates with me. World gone crazy!
June 13th, 2021 11:48 am
Fantastic and so much fun… it made me turn on some classic rock…
Here in Sweden, the rappers that win prices are inmates.