Friday, May 31, 2013

Friday Original Poem


Something I am working on...



First day on campus
City choked with dust
High-pitched chatter in the hallways
Smiles touched
Old friends finally meet

Jeanne spilled red sauce on the hoary carpet of our dorm room
Borrowed all of my best clothes
Made certain our comforters matched before we ever met
Pined for an unobtainable boy whose name I now can’t remember

When we discovered Lilly,
Shrieking with pleasure
“We’re both having girls!”
Swollen bellies reclined in my jungle-green backyard

Eyes broad with joy
Mothers in a sea of fledgling women
All facing the same
Tests, allies and enemies

Weekend visits and phone calls
Interrupted by
Nursing babies
Soiled diapers
Little accidents accompanied deafening, chubby tears

You showed me how to plow the dirt in my garden
Grabbed handfuls of mud and pressed seeds inside
That sprouted butter-colored buds
Enchanted offerings to provender unbroken families

You never mentioned the slow leak of money
Or the disintegration of trust
When he sold the ring
You thought I would never understand betrayal

Mute, the way your soul pierced and pinched
When the theater people lied
Treacherously shuffling you out
While you fitted another clean diaper to a not-so-sweet bottom

After Jude (he was the third baby)
The headache burned but you had babies to tend to
Your brain crashed
Overloaded like some manic, sparking circuit board

In front of a room of restless children,
You collapsed against a lacquered, wood floor
Helicopters delivered your body to a nearby hospital
But you never returned

6 comments:

  1. I'm shivering... this is some powerful poem that I will come back to this afternoon and read again. And I have made a note of June 6. I have no idea what that will be all about, but I will be here.

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  2. ...words cannot express the intense feelings I got when reading this poem right now...

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  3. Such a heartbreaker. But the best poetry digs deep in the emotional abyss. Beautifully written. I'm sending you a hug.

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  4. Very intense and heartfelt poem, that shows memories of friendship and concern. Great job.

    P.S. - Thank you so much for the Wordpress Award nomination. I gladly accept it, and would be so grateful for a reminder on the 6th. :) Writer’s Mark

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  5. Powerful, beautiful, mournful, and chilling. I'm sorry I never had the pleasure of knowing your dear friend. But I am very glad to know you, friend.

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