Give the elderly respect

This poem touched me. Here we are in this world enjoying life and taking it sometimes for granted.


When an old man died in the geriatric ward of a nursing home in an Australian country town,
it was believed that he had nothing left of any value.

Later, when the nurses were going through his meager possessions, They found this poem.
Its quality and content so impressed the staff that copies were made and distributed to every nurse in the hospital.

One nurse took her copy to Melbourne .. The old man's sole bequest to posterity has since appeared in the
Christmas editions of magazines around the country and appearing in mags for Mental Health.

A slide presentation has also been made based on his simple, but eloquent, poem.
And this old man, with nothing left to give to the world, is now the author of this 'anonymous' poem winging across the Internet.


Remember this poem when you next meet an older person who you might brush aside without looking at the young soul within ... . . ..
we will all, one day, be there, too!
PLEASE SHARE THIS POEM,
The best and most beautiful things of this world can't be seen or touched.
They must be felt by the heart.



Cranky Old Man.....

What do you see nurses?
What do you see?
What are you thinking
when you're looking at me?

A cranky old man not very wise,
Uncertain of habit with faraway eyes?
Who dribbles his food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice 'I do wish you'd try!'

Who seems not to notice
the things that you do
And forever is losing
A sock or shoe?

Who, resisting or not
lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding
The long day to fill?

Is that what you're thinking?
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes
Nurse you're not looking at me

I'll tell you who I am
As I sit here so still
As I do at your bidding
as I eat at your will

I'm a small child of Ten
with a father and mother
Brothers and sisters
who love one another

A young boy of Sixteen
with wings on his feet
Dreaming that soon now
a lover he'll meet.

A groom soon at Twenty
my heart gives a leap
Remembering, the vows
that I promised to keep

At Twenty-Five, now
I have young of my own
Who need me to guide
And a secure happy home

A man of Thirty
My young now grown fast
Bound to each other
With ties that should last

At Forty, my young sons
have grown and are gone
But my woman is beside me
to see I don't mourn

At Fifty, once more
Babies play 'round my knee
Again, we know children
My loved one and me

Dark days are upon me
My wife is now dead
I look at the future
I shudder with dread

For my young are all rearing
young of their own
And I think of the years
And the love that I've known

I'm now an old man
and nature is cruel
It's jest to make old age
look like a fool

The body, it crumbles
grace and vigour, depart
There is now a stone
where I once had a heart

But inside this old carcass
A young man still dwells
And now and again
my battered heart swells

I remember the joys
I remember the pain
And I'm loving and living
life over again

I think of the years,
all too few gone too fast
And accept the stark fact
that nothing can last

So open your eyes, people
open and see
Not a cranky old man
Look closer see. ME!!