Month: January 2023

2023 FINN Gold Cup

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I watched the days’s events from our balcony 

Yachtsmen coming from all over the globe

The World championship for FINN class solo racers

Hosted by the Coconut Grove Sailing Club

Flags from every competitors’s nation flying proud

The sailing club was a hive of activity early in the day

Boats being prepared for today’s races

Sails and rigging being checked

Hulls wiped and polished

One by one down the launch ramp

Sails picking up the steady breeze

The flotilla weaved its way through the moorings 

A floating procession of solo FINN racers headed out into the bay

Soon they were on the course

Maneuvering into their starting formation

The first of two races of the day started

Sailing this class of yacht is physically very demanding

Those who read the wind best edged out front

A long line of identical sailboats in pursuit

All highly skilled and experienced FINN racers 

Skimming over Biscayne Bay

Bright colored sails decorating the deep blue waters

Such a beautiful sight

No roaring race engines

All powered by the wind

On a warm bright breezy day in January

I watched the races throughout the day

Boats returning late afternoon

One by one to the ramp and back on dry land

Hungry sailers lining up for a well deserved meal

Deep conversation reliving every racing incident

Winners being congratulated by all

Plenty of smiling faces

More racing to come the next day

May the winds be kind to them tomorrow

New design for Cheeky Monkey Poetry Website

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Greetings all you Cheeky Monkey readers. When we started this blog we had no idea how many poems would end up here. Our website designers Abby and Addison have done a complete overhaul to make it easier for you to find your favorite poem amongst the 500 plus here.

If you just want to receive the poem of the day, you can hit the subscribe button

The five most recent poems are listed by title

You can search for a poem by title, date, category or a key word

All the categories are listed, clicking on one will bring up the associated poems

Thank you for all your support and stay cheeky!

Sports can either keep you wide awake or put you to sleep

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I am an avid sports fan

Following sporting events on TV and occasionally in person

Big events like the Wold Cup are thrilling to watch

The best soccer players in the world performing spectacular moves

Combined with the passion of the fans supporting their own nation

Occasionally some David beats Goliath surprise results capture my attention

Every game starts with the uncertainty off who will score goals

Both sets of fans firmly believing that their team is going to win

Cheering and singing in anticipation of that victory celebration

The certainty of defeat for one team is only realized at the final whistle

One set of fans dancing and singing with their team in the joy of victory

While the defeated team and their supporters hold their heads in sorrow

Formula One motorsports is exciting in a different way

The drivers are not the only ones racing against each other

Its a team effort of designers, engineers, mechanics, statisticians and strategists

Who dares to keep their car right on the edge for two hours usually wins 

Those who try but make one small mistake often crash out and lose

Formula One attracts the glitz and glamor of an ultra rich entourage

Supermodels and movie stars parade around the paddock posing for the cameras

The mechanics work at lightening speed preparing the cars with an intense focus

Totally oblivious of the media and celebrity circus swarming around them

I also like to watch a game of cricket on an English village green

There are no supermodels or movie stars to be seen at all

No hoards of flag waiving and cheering fans

There might be just a few dozen spectators watching the game in deck chairs

Patiently waiting for the batsman to make a good hit or the bowler to strike the wicket

Polite applause follows a good stroke of the bat maybe every twenty minutes or so

Some spectators unashamedly doze off during the long periods of inactivity

Woken by the occasional applause they clap a few times before napping again

I wonder if they are dreaming about making a great shot with the cricket bat

Perhaps they are dreaming about scoring a winning goal in a football match

Or driving a  Formula One car at lightening speeds on the track

I feel blessed to constantly dream about all of them

To the bitter end

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I was taught from an early age to always be prepared

Keep your home well stocked

Never run out of toilet paper

Always have a few cold beers in the fridge

Keep the bar well stocked in case of unexpected guests

We tend to buy replacement liquor before the bottle gets empty

There is however one exception

Angostora bitters never run out so why bother buying a backup

The bottle has an oversize lable that completely covers the contents

Rumor has it the label was printed oversize in error

They decided to stick with it as a gimmick

I do not buy into that theory at all

I think the bottle contains a magic beetle 

That absorbs water from the air

And feeds on some tropical plant that grows in there too

The beetle secretes a bitter liquid

That’s why your bottle of bitters will never run out 

Yesterday we had guests and I made a Manhattan

I followed my usual recipe

Starting with one of those oversize ice cubes in a glass

I poured in some Bulleit Rye and Dollans red vermouth

Then I started to add 4 drops of Angostura bitters

But horror of horrors only three drops came out

I tried shaking and squeezing the bottle to no avail

For the first time in my life I witnessed the end of the bitters

Perhaps the magic beetle just died of old age

He had lived a long happy life inside that bottle

Providing bitters for me to share with friends and family

He did us proud

Right up to the bitter end

Waking at 3am

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He woke up at and looked at the clock seeing 3am

Tossing and turning while he desperately tried to drop off

His wife was fast asleep beside him

He glanced at the time again and it was 2.30am

Convinced he must have read the time wrong before 

He pulled out his phone to double check the exact time

It was 2.27am but he noticed something very strange

The displayed time was going backwards

Soon it was showing 2.15am and still going backwards

This must be a weird dream he concluded and he drifted off to sleep

When he woke up he could hear the TV blaring away

His wife was no longer in bed so he got up to investigate

She was in the lounge watching TV and drinking wine

Lets watch this show she urged so he joined her

She poured him a glass of wine too

It was now 11pm the day before and the time was still going backwards

After the show finished she told him to get dressed for dinner

They pulled up at the restaurant for a meal with friends

Nobody else seemed to be bothered about the time going backwards

They drank a lot during dinner before dashing home to change again

It was almost 6.30 pm and she told him to have a nice day at work

It felt strange starting his working day after a big boozy dinner

He drove to work and saw all of his usual co-workers

All performing their usual tasks as the day went backwards

Lunch was at the normal time full of small talk

Nobody was fazed that time was running backwards

They were all looking forward to going home at 9am

When he got home his wife was asleep in bed

He grabbed a quick breakfast and took a shower before joining her in bed

Hoping that everything would normal when he woke up

He soon fell asleep exhausted

Waking up again at 3am and noticing that time was still going backwards

This daily backward cycle just keep going and going for days, months and years

His past had become his future and he was reliving what he had already done before

Soon he was single again reliving his bachelor days before meeting his wife

Then he was back in school getting younger every day

He realized that his days left were minimal

Finally he approached his day of birth and woke up in his mother’s womb

A shrinking embryo that would soon not exist at all

At the moment of conception his entire life flashed before him

What is your TV escape code?

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This is the BBC

Those words were my first memories of radio

A very stiff upper lip presenter

Telling you the news in a ridiculously posh British accent

The TV shows from the British Broadcasting Service were equally stiff but void of commercials

Great drama and documentaries were the hallmark of BBC television

Then came along commercial television called ITV

They produced soap operas and comedies for the masses

Back then there were only two channels available on British TVs

They became great rivals competing for prime time audiences

We bought a weekly magazine called the TV Times listing all TV shows

Hard to believe that we actually spent time turning pages before watching the TV

News programs were at a fixed time daily

This is the Six O’Clock News

News At Ten

Friendly faces giving you updates on current affairs

We got to trust those presenters far too much

Believing every word they said 

They usually ran for many decades before retiring

Creating a huge stir when a new presenter came along

The Brits are totally obsessed with talking about the weather

But they will also go on for hours and hours about their favorite TV news presenter

When I moved to America the choice of TV was overwhelming

Comcast gave me almost 1000 channels to flick through

Most of which were absolute tripe

Fortunately they had a BBC channel which became my daily go to

Filled with nostalgic comedies and drama from the 70’s and 80’s

The theme songs were often better than the shows themselves

The Sweeny and Miami Vice ear worms are permanently embedded in my head

Comcast eventually got too greedy so we bit the bullet and cut the cable

We joined the new world of streaming with Netflix, Amazon and HBO

No longer constrained to scheduled weekly broadcasts

We could binge away all night watching back to back episodes of Breaking Bad

News programs were no longer entertaining so we stopped watching them 

Today’s dinner table conversations are all about TV binging

Oh you have to watch this new series on Netflix

Its only 25 episodes and you can binge it over three nights

We got weary and sleep deprived from too much TV bingeing

Especially during the enforced Covid lockdowns when we were glued to the TV 24/7

Technology has moved on leaps and bounds for TV watchers

Voice activated remotes save you from pressing buttons

No more repetitive strain injured thumbs from channel hopping

When I am alone late at night I whisper random words into the remote

Its like metal detecting in a muddy field

A mindless exercise that occasionally produces a hidden gem

When lost in the desert of crappy boring TV channels

I pick up the voice activated remote and utter my escape code

BBC

The Trolley Bus

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He watched the trolleybus go by every day

It was a self propelled vehicle with a driver

Operated like a modern day bus

Styled like an old 1930’s electric trolley bus

Which was powered from overhead wires back then

An old man was waiting for the trolley bus today

He remembered seeing him ride before

He moved very slowly and took his time getting on

Curious about the whole trolley bus experience

He decided to take a ride himself the next day

The old man was there again

He waited patiently for him to slowly get on

Then followed him and found a seat behind him

There were just the two of them riding that day

He leaned forward to start a polite conversation

I see you riding this trolleybus every day

The old man turned round to answer

But he was no longer an old man

Mysteriously transformed into handsome young man 

Wearing 1930’s style clothing he responded

Yes I take this trolley bus to work every day

They continued small talk for a while

Before the young man announced his stop

Nice to meet you but I get off here so have a nice day

He watched him walk to the front of the trolley bus

No difficulty or hesitation in his stride

Not all all like the old man who he had seen getting on earlier

He was now the only passenger left on the trolley bus

As it pulled away he looked out of the window

No sign of the young man he had just been chatting with 

Just an old man standing alone staring at the departing trolley bus

There was nothing left

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She reached out for his pillow

Yearning for his familiar scent

There was nothing left

Only the smell of detergent

She opened her phone

Searching for a photograph of him

There was nothing left

He had erased everything on her phone before he left

She walked into the closet

looking for a remnant of his clothes

There was nothing left

He had taken it all

They had travelled to many exotic places together

Taking photographs to record their adventures

Putting them in albums with funny captions

She looked at the bookcase

The photo albums were all gone

There was nothing left

He had taken them all

She still missed him

Waking daily with a welcome ache

But today was different

She reached deep down into her feelings

The ache was not there at all

There was nothing left

He had taken away her feelings

She closed here eyes

Confident that her memory would reveal him

Patiently waiting for his face or voice to appear

She could not find any trace of him

There was nothing left

He had taken her memories too

Unfinished Business

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Looking back at my schooldays

My first driving ambition was to become a soccer star

Sharing the dream of every boy born in Liverpool

My academic life interfered with my sporting ambitions

I played and trained in football (aka soccer) every day

I worked hard at unfinished business

Until I reached the ripe old age of sixteen

When I became a man and saw the brutal reality of my own abilities

I simply was not good enough to be a professional footballer

It was time to focus all my efforts on my education and get into university

I worked hard at unfinished business

Fortunately I had not left it too late

Recruiters came looking for me at university

After graduating my ambition turned to my career

Striving to take on extra responsibilities

Learning the skills of people and business management 

I worked hard at unfinished business

Motorsports fascinated me

I joined a local motorsports racing club

Building my own racing Mini Cooper

Learning the skills of driving a race car

Using my engineering knowledge to increase the engine power

Working late into the night preparing the car for each race

I worked hard at unfinished business

Outside of my career there were family duties

Experiencing the joy of bringing a new born into the world

Building a home and providing for my family

Learning the skills of parenting 

Appreciating the love and guidance given to me by my own parents

Constantly seeking the right balance between work and family life

I worked hard at unfinished business

In the blink of an eye my kids were grown up and through college themselves

I wanted to do more than be a 24/7 corporate executive

I took on a major volunteering challenge

Volunteering exposed me to things I had never seen before in real life

It taught me to recognize the delicate fragility of my own existence

And to accept that the future is predictably uncertain

I worked hard at unfinished business

Upon retirement I started to write poetry and short stories

I became fascinated with the infinite beauty of nature

I progressed to writing a daily poetry blog

While striving to maintain a healthy and secure retirement lifestyle 

Accepting that being a good husband required constant behavioral adjustments on my part

There were new friendships to find and old ones to foster

I worked hard at unfinished business

I watched the sunrise today

I stood outside and felt the wind on my face

There are many new places I want to see sunrise and sunset

Its a joy to see my kids building their own homes and families

I want to spend more time with my grandson

There are many more miles to cover on my bike

I still have to master some difficult yoga poses

A long list of DIY projects is pinned to my todo list

Lots more Cheeky Monkey stories to write and share

Fun times to be had with family and loving friends

There is plenty of unfinished business to work hard on