Christmas comes just once a year, we know
But so do the annual Nursing Home Games with residents all in a row.
Preparations for both go on all year round.
But the practices for Games events are earnest and long.

Fling the discus, put the shot,
Do your best to avoid the rout.
Racers in wheelchairs roll down in a rush.
While brave walkers go more slowly to avoid a possible crush.
Ambitious artists, craftsmen and linguists have their works on display,
While fun-loving 42ers stay busy most all day.
The brainy group who likes to spell
Takes one word at a time and hopes to be correct and do well.
Actions and words sometimes cause a fall
But nothing's so festive as the finals in volleyball.

Sportsmanship and kindly actions are important to any game,
So put them on your mark for practice in your own home floor,
And aim your sights on Games 22 to be played in two thousand and four.

Get ready, get set for this year's Games 21
And keep on counting for more years to come.

Note: Long-time Hyde Parker Ms. Casey is HPNA's Treasurer Emerita.

In the graveyard he stands,
Frozen like a statue.
A gust of wind blows by him,
He blinks but stays frozen,
A rat scurries by his foot,
But still he stays frozen.
He hears a noise behind him,
He does not turn, look, or care.
He just stays there frozen to the spot.
Years have gone by but he still stands frozen
    like a statue in the graveyard.

That place where the
dying's never done, that
place where my brother
waits, dead at birth.
Sometimes I hear him
singing in the night, a
small child's song, a
sad little song that
echoes through my day,
a song there is no end
to. I do not make a
fetish of this fact
but how deny a part of
you even if it's dead?