Category: poetry

3 score and ten

Ian Hunter2 Comments

Today I celebrated a Birthday of 3 score and 10

An age not reached by many fine men

Feeling blessed to have made it to this special day

Reflecting upon the bullets I dodged along the way

Proud to have raised a couple of awesome kids

I still picture them as tiny babies inside my closed eyelids

They have long since fled the nest to forge their own way

But I still think about them every single day

Their birthday wishes today brought me infinite joy

I felt like a child receiving a shiny new toy

Greetings from so many friends today filled me with glee

I made firm promises to find time to them soon see

For time passes faster as we are so busy and get older

There are sad moments when we want to cry on a shoulder

Its so comforting to lean on a soulmate in times of uncertainty

If you have no soulmate then just lean on the Cheeky Monkey

We are here to bring you daily words of wisdom and jest

Making you smile or maybe jolt you out of feeling depressed

In a world that seems full of wars, chaos and infinite strife

The Cheeky Monkey injects a daily dose of poetry into your life

STAY CHEEKY MY FRIENDS!!!!!

will anybody ever look at the 32,000 photos stored in my cloud

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I watched another sunset recently 

the sky was deep orange

reflected in the city skyline

the air was warm and heavy

another summer is beginning

adventures captured in images

safely stored in my phone

and backed up to my cloud

some shared with friends via text

others posted on social media

gone are the days of printed photographs

carefully arranged in albums

my old albums are consigned to storage

along with all the transparencies

that meticulously recorded my vacations 

no more boring slide shows in my darkened living room

now I can bore people remotely

clutter their smart phones with my images

which they will back up to their clouds

lest they ever need to find it

whatever happened to capturing moments

into the cloud of your mind

to be recalled as happy memories

stories being told to your family and friends  

our children will remember those stories

as a legacy of our time on this planet

nobody really needs a smart phone

to remember how orange the sky was

Jane’s dilemma

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Jane was devastated when her mother passed away

she had lived a long life full of love for her family

over fifty years of marriage to a devoted husband

raising three children who were now all married 

Jane did her best to console her grieving father

she took the lead in arranging the funeral

her father granted her power of attorney

his wife had handled everything financial in their long marriage

many months later she visited with her father

he was still in mourning and very sad

he did not have the strength to go through his wife belongings

Jane stepped up again and started to clean out her mothers closet

her mother had kept so many things from the past

her own faded wedding dress

the first worn shoes from each of her three children

every single school report card good and bad for each child

Jane took her time looking at all her mothers possessions

it was like turning the clock back to her own childhood

reliving the past through objects and photographs 

it was a daunting task to sift through so many memories

she decided to put everything into categories

things to be kept for her father to treasure

other items to be shared with her two brothers

unwanted stuff would be donated or thrown away

it was relatively easy to decide who would get things to keep

but ever so hard to consign anything to be discarded 

she felt it was disrespectful to her mothers memory

but the volume was so great it had to be done

she came across a small box tied with pink ribbons

letters from an old family friend to her mother

recording the intimate details of their long running affair

should she share her mother’s infidelity with the family or keep it secret

rainbowism

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Jason was a happy child

always smiling and laughing

he was fascinated by rainbows

became ecstatic when they appeared

rainbows were in every drawing he made

not just in the sky

people were outlined in rainbow colors

every object had a rainbow lining

his parents thought it was all in his imagination

he was a happy kid in school

then his teachers started to notice his rainbows

Jason was not considered normal

child psychologists were brought in 

lots of talking and subtle testing

many rainbow drawings produced

without finding anything unusual in his brain

Jason still loved rainbows

totally ignoring the teasing from other kids

he kept smiling and radiating happiness 

he was a little rainbow of joy

more tests with eye specialists

he had perfect vision

no structural abnormalities in his eyes

no explanation for his rainbowism

more test with filtered lenses

until Jason started to cry

somebody stole all the rainbows he blurted

his parents declared victory

he was forced to wear those filtered lenses

Jason became sad lonely and withdrawn

unable to endure the suffering his mother destroyed the glasses

Jason and his rainbows lived happily ever after

Its only water falling from the sky

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light rain falling

gentle descending mist

damp film

evenly coating everything

not unpleasant

pitter patter raindrops

tapping on the window

softly kissing your face

welcome wetting

tolerable intrusion

heavy rain

crashing to the ground

puddles pooling

bodily soaking

unwelcome guest

seeking shelter

tropical downpour

drains overflowing

instant flooding

property damage

life endangering event

evacuate

clearing a path after the storm

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it was the morning after the big storm

he walked outside to assess the damage

lots of tree limbs down in the yard

some trees toppled over

one resting against the roof

fortunately no damage to the house or his truck

he fueled up the chainsaw

fitted a new blade

safety glasses and ear protection donned

carefully planning each cut to avoid injury

the chain saw roared into life

sawdust clouds filled the air

it was hard work but he did not tire

staying totally focussed on his task

he felt strangely more aware of his own situation with every cut

a few hours later he stepped back to size things up

the pieces were now small enough to be loaded onto his pickup

he estimated it would take five or six loads to haul it all away

he took each load to a friend who sold firewood

it was almost nightfall when the last load was gone

tomorrow he would finish cleaning up with the leaf blower 

he went inside to think things through

he resisted the urge to pour himself a stiff drink

he had not only cleared away the storm damage

his mind was now clear and he acknowledged this was a new beginning for him

it was time for a career change and some new friends

no more hanging out in bars with drunken losers

no more casual hookups with loose women

it was time to put some meaning and purpose into his existence

he was eternally grateful that the raging storm had cleared a path for his future

crab pots and paddle boards

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the waterman tends his crab pots daily

harvesting and re-baiting

gliding over still waters close to the marsh

living a solitary life on the water

the paddle boarders are up for a day of fun

meandering along Turville Creek

watching the ospreys fishing

hoping to spot a dolphin in the bay

they paddle towards Herring Creek

lined with rich green marsh

the waterman speeds towards them

tending to his pots laid close to the edge 

he pauses to chat with the paddle boarders

commercial and leisure activities overlap

all sustainable and no threat to the marsh

when carefully managed and executed respectfully

the waterman moves on to his next crab pot

paddle boarders wander aimlessly along the creek

ospreys are busy nest building

the marsh is happy and smiling

Roaming past restaurants

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Roaming past restaurants
Whiff a waffle
Hint of a hot dog
Smell a samosa
Pursuing a pepper
Aroma of an Apple
Flavor of flounder
Memory of a macaroni
Explosion of eggs
Linger of linguini
Scent of sushi
Trailing a tagliateli
Imagining an Iceberg lettuce
Ignoring an ice cream
Following a flounder
Relishing a radish
Loving a lemon
Meeting a melon
Observing an onion
Pursuing a persimmon


Quality controlling a kumquat
Dribbling over a dinner
Salivating over an sausage
Running away from a roast dinner
Crawling to a crawfish
Smiling at a salmon
Tickling a trout
Cheating on a carrot
Diving into a dead fish