{"id":374731,"date":"2022-08-24T06:05:29","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T20:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=374731"},"modified":"2022-08-24T06:05:29","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T20:05:29","slug":"senescent-senior-sociological-sonnets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/senescent-senior-sociological-sonnets\/","title":{"rendered":"Senescent Senior Sociological Sonnets \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Do you remember the bestselling book and subsequent\u00a0film, The Spy Who Came In From the Cold? Well, I\u2019m a\u00a0guy who \u201cCame Out\u201d about old. Back in the day when a\u00a0person became public about their sexual preferences they were said to have, \u201ccome out.\u201d People had \u201cComing Out\u201d parties. My senescent series of poems are my written \u201ccoming out\u201d poetic party about being old. Enjoy!<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>A Guy Who \u2018Came Out\u2019 About Old<\/strong><br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nGot different kinds of arthritis in my knees<br \/>\nshoulders, elbows, and all my finger joints<br \/>\nold age, creeping up very slowly seems to be<br \/>\nalways making its permanent painful points.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nGot new hair growing out of my ears and nose<br \/>\nand wonder of wonders hair growing on my toes<br \/>\nhave you ever heard or read about St. Vitus Dance<br \/>\nwell, I\u2019m an old codger with \u201cants in my pants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>My body is crawling with tiny biting ants<br \/>\nI have to be alert and stay on the watch<br \/>\nI can feel them crawling over my body hair<br \/>\nand inevitably bite under arms and crotch.\u00a0<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nAi adai, that\u2019s one way growing older can go<br \/>\nI\u2019m sure other man\u2019amko \/seniors well know.<br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<strong>Later on a Beach on Tinian<\/strong><br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\n<em>\u201cFurther on down the road you will accompany me, if there\u2019s a fool in this life, then a happy fool is what I wanna be\u2026\u201d<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>\u2014Taj Mahal, African American blues singer who is still performing.<\/strong><br \/>\n\u00a0<br \/>\nNothing is better left unsaid\u2014so later on<br \/>\nwhen walking underneath a Micronesian sky<br \/>\nwhen angry thoughts and feelings you abandon<br \/>\nyour heart is pumping and oxygen intake high<br \/>\nstrolling down a coral road to the nearest beach<br \/>\nas today the sky clears and waves are surging<br \/>\nthoughts of friends and family come into reach<br \/>\nangry moments said softspoken but purging<br \/>\nnow basking in the shelter of an Australian pine<br \/>\nas our peaceful island is scanned by the sun<br \/>\nand we turn to each other surprised by the time<br \/>\nby the look of smiling eyes we\u2019re having fun<br \/>\nand please tell to me more by the end of the day<br \/>\nand again more my love tomorrow I heartily pray.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Joey &#8216;Pepe Batbon&#8217; Connolly (Special to the Saipan Tribune)<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Joey aka Pepe Batbon is a retired educator who taught in the CNMI, NOLA, and LVNV. He is a sonnet practitioner who enjoys stargazing.<\/em><br \/>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you remember the bestselling book and subsequent\u00a0film, The Spy Who Came In From the&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":355846,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11384,26,21,13843],"class_list":["post-374731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-african-american","tag-cnmi","tag-life","tag-pepe-batbon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}