Cantankerous (Sometimes I think)

03/04/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



Sometimes I think you’re crotchety

An old man sitting in your chair

Annoyed at the world around you

And taking it out on all of us



Sometimes I think you’re just stubborn

Set in your ways since forever

Unable to change how you live or love

And unwilling to make any compromise



Sometimes I think you’re bloody-minded

Deliberately setting yourself at odds

With the rest of the family

Who only want you to be happy



Sometimes I think you’re ill-natured

From a life too hard to comprehend

And I wouldn’t surprise me in the least

If it played on your mind all too often



Sometimes I think you’re being testy

And it takes little to set you off

Your temper quick to irritate

And you’re becoming increasingly impatient



Sometimes I think you’re simply cranky

Grumbling about all of life’s woes

How nothing ever seems to be easy

And life is one struggle after another



Sometimes I think you’re grumpy

And grouchy and gruff and aggrieved

The whole world seems to be against you

Even if that’s in your own mind



Sometimes I think that you’re crabby

A surly curl to your top lip

Snapping and overly combative

Over even the most minor of things



Sometimes I think you’re temperamental

Prone to bouts of unreasonableness

With your quarrelsome nature overriding

All the good that hides deep inside



Sometimes I think you’re petulant

Like a child who can’t get their way

Arrogantly insisting everyone fall in line

Like a boorish sergeant-major



Sometimes I think you’re obnoxious

Acting out in spite against all who care

Making for many a prickly encounter

When it could have been so very different



Sometimes I think you’re cantankerous

But I know that’s not all that you are

And I must summon all my strength

To make it out from the cloud around you

Every Picture

01/01/2021 – Poem a Day Compilation



There’s a picture for every occasion

And you’re in every one of them.

There’s shenanigans at the beach

And passed out passenger in the car.

There’s loving cuddles with kitty

And playful tumbles with pup,

And who could forget sneaky pub visits

Or picnics by the lake?



If I printed them all out to hang

They’d cover every spare inch of wall

And be a constant reminder of you

When times were a little bit better,

But there’s still pictures of you

But they’re a bit different from how they were,

Being not quite so energetic

But still determined to be full of life.



There’s the one from your first doctor’s room

And from the imagining lab as well,

I took one when you were heading to surgery

And in recovery as well,

So now that you’re at home

You can pose with the things you make

Until you can finally get up

And I can take pictures of that very first step.



Every picture I take tells a story,

Some happier times than others, 

But I cannot delete a single frame

Because they’re you when you’re not around.

When I go to the shops, you’re with me,

And when I’m at work, you’re by my side

Because every picture is a part of you

And you are always a part of me.