In honor of grandparents

Last Sunday, Sept. 8, was Grandparent’s Day. In honor of the occasion, here is a continuation of my T.O.A.S.T: Timeless Old Age Senior Tales.

Ti Nayuyut Para Todo Tatan Bihu Yan Nanan Biha Siha
Everyone is praying for our grandparents
 
Yes, all our parent’s parents are great and grand
to them the world’s cultures show deep respetu
yan todu kuttura comprende and understand
this is mas importante from nieta yan nietu.

You know they look a little bit like Mom and Dad
or do my Mom and Dad look a lot like them?
I heard some manaina say they’re feeling very bad
some grandparents have a hearing and vision problem.

They led difficult lives and worked hard every day
on farms and in their yards, hauled a lot of water
at fiesta times they took some time to enjoy and play
and teach kuttura yan kustumbre to son and daughter.

Now they are old, some getting quiet and mellow
Happy Grandparent’s Day to guella yan guello.

Old Age Day? or Getting Older and Aged Day?

We have National Senior Citizen’s Day on August twenty-first
then there is Grandparent’s Day on the 8th day of September
but there is one more holiday for old timers for which I thirst
maybe between Senior and Grandparent’s Day is easy to remember.
We could call it Old Age Day or even Getting Older and Aged Day
sometime during the seasons of autumn or winter might be appropriate
some folks are Juniors by name, some won’t become grandparents anyway
a day for when one realizes parts of mind and body are starting to quit.
A day when you can say, I’m in my old age, I’m really getting older
Your losing your head hair, it is gone already, or your dying it
your physical and sexual activity is decreasing, not getting any bolder
the business of eating less? exercising more? you’re not even trying it.
So as your short term memory banks fail there is nothing can prevent ya
from forgetting where you put this and that at onset of senile dementia.
 
GRANDPARENTS: BOOMER SONNETS
Written at Blythe, CA Huck Finn Festival on Jan. 18, 2013. This poem was published in the Saipan Tribune several years ago.
 
Do you remember your grandparents, even the in-laws?
Both sides from your biological mother and dad?
Did you have special names for them,‘Opa’,’Mamaw’, and ‘Papaw’?
Did they always hug and comfort you when you were sad?

Did they favor an older sister or a younger brother?
Were some dead before you were born or soon after?
Did they give you all the same presents or one thing then another?
When they came by did you know you were in for laughter?

Are you one now? Do your grandkids live very far away?
Do you enjoy the drive to see them, like to watch them play?
Are your kids not too happy when for a week you’ll stay?
Are your grandkids the smartest and cutest no matter what others say?

So Gramps, Grams, grumpy Grandpa, and gentle Grammies
enjoy your grandkids, sunburned, dirty, or in their jammies.