Alabaster. Nancy Pietsch
enigma that God has planned
I will not question the meaning
But I will set a goal
To follow the Ten Commandments
To try to save my soul
Unaware
When we reach a certain stage
Where we no longer get to decide
It leaves us without our hopes and dreams
It leaves us horrified
The choices in our future
Are no longer up to us
We don’t want to draw attention
We don’t dare make any fuss
The survival of the weakest
For us is very real
Even if our minds are sharp
They, determine how we feel
If we put up any protest
And we have a white head of hair
It automatically causes judgment
With “I don’t think that she’s aware.”
It’s possible that we’re not
We ask, “What is this new pill?”
We’re told that we must take it
We’re not allowed to exercise our will
We stay alive for your next visit
At first, you come a lot
Then it dwindles to nothing
Now we don’t care if you come or not
Why does it surprise you
That we have lost our appetite?
Or that we sleep during the day
And cannot sleep at night
We’re not interested in what you say
We can’t hear to really care
We’re no longer in your world
Face it, you haven’t time to spare
We have lost our hopes and dreams
As well as our excitement and vitality
These were all taken from us
It has become our new reality
We’ve decided to give up the struggle
We’ve given up, we’ve lost the will
We refuse to eat anymore
We have the right to refuse the pill
PS. This is something we’d like to tell you
The day may come when you need extra care
And even if your mind is sharp, God forbid
You too are judged “unaware”
In Passing
It seems everything is mixed up
We’re not growing old, after all
Look at the common threads with our babies
They have blankets, we have a shawl
When we are toddlers, we measure our growth
At adulthood, we stop growing tall
Then along comes osteoporosis
Causing our spines to grow again small
Remember when you took your first step?
We fell many times learning how
Well, we’re back in that same situation
But our bones break easier now
When babies, our mothers would feed us
We’d wear a bib to cover our clothes
Now we’re back in that similar position, our
Shaking hands drop food while we doze
Babies are not born with teeth
They eat pablem until their teeth come in
Our teeth come out to soak in a glass
Again eating pablem seems we just can’t win
When toddlers are learning to talk, it’s difficult
They get frustrated when not understood
We, on the other hand, lose patience
You see, our memories are not very good.
For children, potty training isn’t easy
They wear diapers, they’ve not learned control
Our bladders and bowels have weakened
We’ve lost the muscles to hold in the flow
When babies are taking their first steps
A walker steadies them on their feet
We too have gone back to this practice
But now our walkers are also a seat
Like toddlers that sleep in daybeds
Like babies who sleep in cribs
Our beds are equipt with railings
So we don’t roll out and break any ribs
Do you see, we are growing younger
Soon we’ll be right back at the start
Soon it will be increasingly difficult
To tell us…from babies…apart!
Half as Much
I’ve always been a pessimist
I don’t believe in every day bull
My glass is always half empty
My glass is never half full
A pessimist questions everything
An optimist sees only good
If I see a problem arising
I’ll try to solve it, I think that I should
An advantage for you to consider
Is the half-empty glass if you will
When something unseemly happens
I have half as much…in it…to spill
Red Dress
If the day is overcast and cloudy
And it seems that it couldn’t be duller
I’ll put my flaming red dress on
Wearing the blues is just not my color
Heh, Sister
Heh, sister, let’s go out tonight
Let’s take hours getting pretty
We could dine at that fancy restaurant
Where our conversations can turn witty
We could visit with artistic types
There isn’t anything we can’t discuss
We’re two women of the world
Seat us