Never Stop Dreaming

mostly retired grandfather

waters the damned azaleas

for the second time in one day.

 

he fidgets with the sprayer,

trying to get it just right,

 

feels the warm sunlight

slide across his wrinkled cheek;

feels a warm epiphany

slide across his restless soul.

 

boom! his universe giggles,

cinders of his mind glow brighter;

the old majestic fire resurfaces.

this pure moment grows dragon wings,

and soars to higher, newer dreams.

 

he knows he could’ve been more than this;

he could’ve been more dangerous.

more Charles Bronson;

less Woody Allen.

he should’ve shunned marriage and convention,

and taken Existence by the ears

when he still had the grip to do so.

 

as the sinking sun lends her

color and beauty

to every ragged cloud in the sky,

a mischievous smirk replaces

that stoic pink line he's worn

into the middle of his face

and

he wonders,

is 73 too old to become a bank robber?

Reviews

[freelancejouster]

i looooved the way this piece started. "damned azaleas" is the perfect wording. the epiphany is brilliantly placed and i'm not sure if the word "giggles" is exquisite or awful. i can visualize almost every piece of this, the specified "dragon wings" is well chosen. the snap ending "is 73 too old to become a bank robber?" is a magnificent laugh but feels oddly placed as there's no hint of bank robbing before hand. i don't know. it's probably my own problem.

regardless, i want to keep this in my pocket to wave in narrow people's faces.

[Rene Velez]

Witty and humorous, love that last line.

[Nina]

I laughed at the first and last stanza!! Brilliant!

There is so much beauty in the first stanza. Of course the whole thing is beautiful, but the first stanza absolutely resonated with me. I'm also big on the way you personified Existence.

[John Patrick Robbins AK..]

F*****g love the style in this amigo jesus ya know how to pen em
and its never to late to start a bad habbit thats what i always say great humor from one hell of a poet indeed throws ya a bottel for this one great work R.G

[Ruth]

LOL Freakin love it!
Amazing work...you lead the reader into a character's territory that lulls them into the softness of that person, then BAM!
"Bank robber"
Perfection!
xoxo

[Emily B]

oh, I love him already

[roarke]

naw, go for it.

A heroic piece, I think there should be an abundance of heroic pieces like this, it'll take a flood of 'em to change the future generations of this world.

more stoic pink lines.

[Kenneth The Poet]

A purely R.G. piece, yet with a bit more softness. It's like you added Downey to the laundry this time. Quite a ripping read.

[Moflo]

That is quite an ending, but you led us there superbly! I love the Charles Bronson vs Woody Allen dilemma, its believable and definitely grips at the conscious of many, I personally feel it frames the poem very well. Great write.