I’ve climbed the highest mountain,
Dived down in the deepest sea,
Run with bulls around a fountain,
Swung like Tarzan from a tree.
I’ve jammed with Bono and Bieber,
Done recitals of Liszt and Mozart,
Gave sermons to many a believer,
Like Picasso, painted new age art.
I’ve done the big stunts of Kneivel,
Starred in many a Broadway show,
Fought in the UFC some call evil,
Won the grand slam twice in a row.
So take it from me this is all true
As I’ve lived it all through YouTube.
TATOO
I think I will get a tattoo, or two,
Of you
Or a sleave with some serious ink,
In pink
May be something in words so felt,
Not misspelt
I’ll get them all over, even near the ear,
No fear
Looking like Joseph’s cloak, I’ll be the bloke,
No joke
But then I think of the pain, the pain, the pain,
Refrain
And when I’m ageing, skin dried and wrinkling,
An inkling
That I should have covered in kid’s transfers.
FLY
Don’t you wish you could fly?
Leave the ground and touch the sky?
Don’t you want to break the mould?
Be strong? Be brave? Be tough? Be bold?
There you lie, thinking of what can be,
Banal life preventing you to be free,
Weighted down by routine, daily pain,
A prisoner coupled to ball and chain.
So look for the wings within your reach,
Fix them on, so the sage would teach,
Be Pegasus, take flight towards the sun,
Don’t give up till you’re number one.
YOUNG
New look
Look look
Partook
Feel crook
Called sook
Mistook
All shook
OLD
Nose hair
No hair
Calf tear
Gasp air
Wheel chair
Welfare
Aged care
Life bare
Not fair
ONESIE
One
all alone
in my Onesie
I once won my Onesie
at a show
It’s a skeleton Onesie
They say One is the loneliest number
but I’m not really alone
I’ve got my Onesie
And now I’m snuggled up
in my Onesie
on the couch
And I think to myself
what if all the world
was like a Onesie?
we wouldn’t be separated
all for One, One for all
together forever
We’d be
One
see
I almost didn’t write this poem
I wondered, I pondered
Walked around my home.
I thought of an excuse not to write
Fed the pet, placed a bet
Went and got a bite.
I went for walk around the block
To clear the mind, find a line
I must have writer’s block.
I turned the computer on again
Stared at the screen, at a scene
I was finding this a pain.
I almost put off procrastinating
What a shame, no words came
Sat there contemplating…
We almost didn’t save the Earth
Thought of money, of our tummy
Didn’t know what it was worth.
With the great interest in taking selfies at the moment, I thought I’d write a sonnet about them:
SELFIE: A SONNET
I thought that I’d take a photo of myself
As ‘selfie’ is the most popular new word,
So I asked my daughter to provide some help,
For my snap might turn out quite absurd.
“Place the phone in front of you just like this,
See Dad, it is so such a piece of cake,
Now smile and click, you can hardly miss,
You’ll find a selfie is so easy to take!”
Now here I am in front of the Eiffel Tower,
I’d like to be seen with the Tower I confess,
So now is the hour, there is no time to cower,
I turn the phone to me and button I did press.
But a first look at the pic has made me so glum
As the only thing I see of ‘self’ is my big thumb.
Neil Dufty's stories and poems 