Stroke!

I’m sitting mute in my wheelchair,

They think that I’m deaf and dumb,

Since ever the stroke that took me out

Emboldened everyone,

The jokes that they told behind my back

They say straight out to my face,

They think I’ll die of a heart attack,

I think they’re a sad disgrace!

 

It’s always about the money,

It’s always about the gilt,

They think they’re getting a fortune,

They’re all hocked up to the hilt,

They think that my Corporation

Will soon be theirs for the take,

They’ll shunt me out to the sidelines,

I think that’s a big mistake!

 

If they think that I’m weak and dying,

They really don’t know the man,

I built up a corporation

With the strength of these two hands,

I was out in the streets at fourteen,

I was selling and hustling then,

While they were sucking their mother’s paps

I was out with working men.

 

Not one of them’s done a hard days work,

They sit there, pushing a pen,

They’ve never raised blisters on their fists

That bled, oh, time and again,

They sit in their pristine offices

With a wall of framed degrees,

But never spent time in a filthy trench

With water, up to their knees.

 

When I’m left alone in the evenings,

I stagger up out of this chair,

And force myself to walk to the wall

And back, as I fight despair,

But I’m gradually getting stronger,

And my head’s as good as it was,

I’ll show these ignorant jokers

What it takes to be a boss!

 

I think they’re getting impatient,

They want me out of the way,

I’ve heard them mutter between them,

That they’ll speed my going away,

The one that I used to trust the most

Has sat in my chairman’s chair,

He smirks and shirks all the daily work

While I can but sit and stare.

 

They’re treating me like an imbecile

They’re treating me like I’m mad,

They’ve draped a blanket over my lap

And don’t realise, I’m glad.

They come at night with a plastic bag

And they place it over my head,

But out from the rug my Magnum looms

And then, Bang Bang, they’re dead!

 

David Lewis Paget

Reviews

[Barbz]

I really enjoyed this work.....although to me it was bittersweet.....for it took me back 4 years to when my late husband was in that chair. His charitable heart was still beating but nothing else seemed to work but for the love and sadness in his eyes.........You know, David, that you can read the first few lines of a book or such and know that it interests you Not........You, on the other hand, catch my interest from the Jump.....Thank you for this ride...it is so enjoyable......

[TL Boehm]

Well now wasn't expecting that ending but who could really blame the man? Another fine story served up in rhyme.

[andrew mitchell]

How true is some of this story based,and funny as it seems the elderly suffer when not treated with respect. Its in their eyes, they know!!!!!

[Avinash]

A self made man relegated and discarded at the sunset of his life. Happens all the time. The callousness of the so called near and dear ones is quite appalling but our hero wont give up as he has always been a fighter. Loved this action packed drama unfolding in a wheelchair.

[Sindu]

Sounds like a hard working successful smart person is doubted and he put them in their place. Again.
It's amazing how you brought the emotions of fighting despair and sycophants ill minded miseries to life.

[MomzillaNC]

Good for him! It always bugs me the way people sit around divvying up the loot of someone else's hard work. Bang, bang indeed!

[Marie]

A great story as always. I don't under stand Ploughboy's problem. "Gilt" was the perfect word to use in that context,and you used it.

I see that you offerec a clarification. There was obviously no guilt involved here; just greed for "gilt".

RIght now you seem to be on a roll. If you can write two poems a day, you'll be done with that next thousand in just over a year...

[Valentine]

I never expected that exact ending. I felt they would never get his money, but him get even that way was a great surprise. Two laughs on 2 sites today..Thank you..Kathie

[PloughBoy]

"It’s always about the [gilt] guilt,

They think they’re getting a fortune,

They’re all hocked up to the hilt,

gilt [gilt]
verb
1.a simple past tense and past participle of gild.
adjective

2.gilded.

3.gold in color; golden.

noun
4.the thin layer of gold or other material applied in gilding.
5.gilt-edged security.

gilt [gilt]
noun
1.a young female swine, especially one that has not produced a litter.

I looked up the word "gilt", David, to see if perhaps this was an inordinary spelling -- perhaps Old English -- but found out, by purest definition, that you must've meant "guilt" here. You may want to alter that. The definition I have included above...

Other than that minor nit, I found this to be an exceptionally well rhymed and metered verse chronicling the crassness that members of one's own family can often put on display as greed and the lust for power rears it's ugly head.

Great work!

[David Lewis Paget]

No, Ploughboy, I meant gilt as in something overlaid with gold, gilded, not guilt, which is something else again.

[PloughBoy]

Ah, exactly the reason I asked, David, as it could go either way. Thanks very much for the clarification, and you're right, it makes an enormous difference.

[A Soap Mess Stories]

Sad when those that claimed to love you are waiting for you to die as they they you're at death's door...great tale...

[icelandicblue]

Things are not always what they seem...Greed's reward is parceled out nicely in this one.