Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Red Slippers



RUBY TUESDAY
RED SLIPPERS!
(My Eightieth Birthday!)

The slippers I'm wearing are red today
For they are marking my natal day.
Eight decades! Surely it isn't true!
I'm feeling almost (a bit) brand new!
'I can't be eighty!' hear me cry!
Why! Any minute I might die!
It really makes my old blood boil,
Shaking off this mortal coil!
Not on your Nelly! Give me time
To write some more odd bits of rhyme!
To be scientific, it appears
It's all to do with telomeres!
They say on both ends of a cell
Little whiskery 'thingies' dwell.


In the picture above there are yellow dots
Which indicate the telomere spots.
These vary in length from person to person
But as years go by they always worsen
In length and quality till, at last,
They cannot function and life is past!
We're all in the same boat, on the whole
Unless you happen to have a mole,
Or two or three, or maybe many.
You're better off! (I haven't any!)
People with moles can give three cheers,
For they have longer telomeres!
People with moles live very much longer
Because their telomeres are stronger!
Scientists! Do your research
Before they see me off in church!
Lengthen my telomeres! Make them longer;
Let me be more spry and stronger!
But, if I fancy euthanasia,
Create a telomere eraser!
I'm sure it's easy! Get it done!
Next birthday I'll be eighty-one!
*

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
                               Margaret Gosden

DUSK

Deep in the rock-pools something stirs,
And then, like curtains falling,
The shades of night blot out the sky,
As a lone sea-bird is calling.
I warm my hands at the setting sun
As I face its fading splendour,
Before the light gives way to dark
And the seas surrender.
*

9 comments:

reg said...

Your Ruby Tuesday "Old but Sexy Lady is just so funny!!!!

Margaret Gosden said...

You excel today in what you do so well, so let us hope that the mole belief is a myth, and that your yellow dots (inherited from mom?) are good for a few more years! I love the poem DUSK - thank you!

Carletta said...

Happy 80th Birthday!
That's awesome!
Wishing you all the best.
Stomp up and down in those red slippers and enjoy it. :)

Caty said...

This was so fun! Happy 80th Birthday and may your telomeres be as long as they've ever been!!

Liz said...

Happy 80th Birthday Rinkly Rimes! Hope you have a happy one.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Happy Birthday Brenda -- and may your sense of humor keep growing along with your telemeres (?) -- shoot I can't even spell it even though I read your post 2 seconds ago. I hope that doesn't mean mine are disappearing even more rapidly....

Have a great day and week and keep on posting -- we really appreciate your talent. And when you learn about the procedure to keep those things strong and healthy let me know asap!!!!

Dianne said...

Happy Birhtday!!
I love your poem
and I wish you many long telemones
paint on a mole like Marilyn Monroe did ;)

Magical Mystical Teacher said...

May you have at least another two decades to spin your rhymes!

SEEING RED

Tonight, my dear, I’m seeing red—
Or is it puce or rose?
Whatever’s going round my head
Is tingling all my toes.

My heart, my dear, becomes inflamed
With passion sore ablaze;
Perhaps it is because I miss
Your glowing, crimson gaze.

Whate’er the cause, my face is flushed
Like a ripened cherry,
No longer healthy, but inflamed—
See the vessels serry*?

A certain sanguine aftertaste
Is clinging to my tongue,
For I have kissed your ruby lips—
To which the claret clung.


*serry – (archaic) to crowd closely together

© 2011 by Magical Mystical Teacher

Lady in Red

Kat said...

Wish you a hap hap haaaaapy Birthday Brenda dear.....

and you are by energy, youthfulness and cheer, the youngest among us all..!!!

God bless you.