she is there, sitting on the sofa
my sofa.
I told her not to come.
she stares intently at my face, slowly lowering her gaze
to the overly timid hands cradling a Palmer acoustic...
I pretend she's not there, brushing the
curtains from the window to stare down the Ive-
it is raining
the ivory limbs of my neighbor's guava tree
creek against the wind, it is a leafless spiny thing,
jutting from a rocky patch of dirt
refusing to die.
"I told you not to come" I say
her high heeled steps echo
drawing the lilac air too close, too close-
for I cannot breathe.
she whispers something (I choose not to hear)
beckons my fingers with a slight touch
to the silent strings
I want to tell her how wrong 'we' feel
to run into the outpour,
dissolve in the steady drops
but only a sigh escapes
my left hand moves rigidly to the fretboard
fixing an A minor
as I try to remember the Elton song...
A contest entry
- music: poetry of the air by Nicolette.
1500 points, ended September 7, 2008, 19 entries
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Comments
-
oh my god. This is just beautiful, bloody beautiful. I got a chill. I imagine a soft, deep voice saying this, and that's what did it for me. I agree with Lane. I loved it
Meg~
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your writing is superb - the words have a life to them, and this is exactly the kind of poetry that makes people
sit back and inhale deeply.
Love, Lane
-
They say the toughest and most painful distance is when you're physically together but emotionally light years away... this poem shows that very well. I love the style. Great balance between the concrete and the abstract here. The imagery is well done, love how exotic the guava tree reference sounds to me. The last stanza is genius - it's very simple and the chord you chose very expressively symbolic of your state of mind. The last line emphasizes the distance in a sad, subtle way. I'm bookmarking this
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And now you have me wondering which Elton John song you were trying to remember... This is lovely poetry. I liked the way you set the scene and the mood here, and the sounds you've managed to weave so subtely into it. There is a sense of disassociation here... a getting lost in the music of your own thoughts. I liked this - great poetry. Thank you for sharing it with us in the contest.
~ Nicolette
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