Family Rim, Stream And Team Poem by John Sensele

Senior citizens
Crated in old people's homes
Discarded denizens
Wrinkled forms

Pivotal during heyday
Generating national growth
Beyond payday
Bestowing cloth

On backs of offspring
Pouring sweat day and night
Zip in their gait and spring
Delight and sunlight

In hearts of extended families
Fountains of love and generosity
Inspiration for hallowed homilies
Wellspring of wisdom in the city

Senior citizens houses built
From scratch
Committed to the hilt
From a rural hut with thatch

Where senior citizens originated
Trekking hundreds of kilometres
Sunshine baked and incinerated
Through bush path nanometers and metres

Feet aching
Parched tongues
Future taking
Mustangs

Searing heartache
When senior citizens forsaken
Monumental mistake
Faith shaken

Time
To reconsider
Importance of the dime
To consider

Values and beliefs
That pride of place accord to the aged
In kerchiefs and handkerchiefs
Rummaged and foraged

To honour the old
Held in high esteem
To withhold
Neglect in family fabric, team and stream.