When a man retires from working life
He wonders what to do.
He soon takes up a whole new way
Of living, thinking too.
The days stretch out before him
Like endless oceans blue.
But standing there is no one
To tell him what to do.
He makes a list of all the things
That really should be done,
And sets the list down somewhere
And doesn’t do a one.
He could go here, he could go there
The car stays in the drive.
He doesn’t bathe, he doesn’t eat,
And soon feels half alive.
The only hope that this man has,
And no one will object,
He needs to look around his house.
And start a new project.
A project concentrates his mind
And gets him off his ass.
It makes him feel alive again
And helps the time to pass.
Knee deep in everything he needs
Like hammers, wood and tin,
The retiree will build back up
His confidence again.
So if you want your retiree
Around a few more years.
Don’t protest all his projects,
They chase away his fears.
©2016 Jim Hagarty
