50+ Lifestyles

A Pause for Poetry

By Gary Heath
Poet in Residence for 50+ Lifestyles

Hot Summer Sizzling Sidewalk

Everything our senses detect
Conceals other things. What
Is, a scrim, hides the real
Behind facades of what lies
About us. What we hear, see,
Smell, and feel, the passing
Scenes of our lives, a popsicle
Dropped on a hot summer
Sizzling sidewalk.

Declaration of Independence

The skies loom gloomy and dark,
Choices for our land look stark.
We patriots burst with discontent,
Our fire of red ire angers to vent.
Our fine colonies’ future is no game,
Bodes ill to burn hot in rebel flame.
Now we the badly treated will show
How we suffer vast outrageous woe.
We want to be heard in freedom’s fray,
Voice truth to make Great Britain sway.
We unheard aggrieved are of a mind,
What we get is gross unjust, far behind.
England glares ill contempt and disdain,
We do not wish King George to remain!
Hear! Hear! We no longer harbor fear,
Down with the villainous redcoats here.
Hear! Hear! We hold our freedoms dear,
We the United States have nothing to fear.