She stood nose to chest,
played with a button at the base
of my sternum. I wanted
my arms around her, but
I could feel the shield.
A wild creature, now,
this woman I thought
I once knew.
I could only wait.
Wait.
“You don’t understand. I have to be free.”
Wait.
“You don’t know how much I love you.
You could never know. I have to be free.”
The breakers rolled in behind her. The wind
tangled her hair and set it flying to caress my face.
Every time the gulls laughed it was another fracture
drawn across the muscle of my heart. I could be
an icicle in this sun of the divine. I could be a feather
waiting for the wind to blow me away. Instead
I am waiting for answers why freedom means
my love is being destroyed.
“Love is like an anchor holding me in one spot.
It isn’t about loving you. It is about giving life
all I have got.”
I wiped the hair out of my face, she looked up
saw my tears. I was unmanned. She stood on tiptoe
kissed me one last time. The ocean ran up the beach
with a vicious hiss. She disappeared.
I never saw her again that summer.
I still have dreams about where it was supposed to go.
Never know what her freedom means.
Never know what she needed from me.
It is just one of the Bermuda Triangles in my soul.
8:51 PM
02/06/09
Alexandria, VA
Author notes
I thought I had forgotten all about this one. Unbridled, the prompt, brought it all back. I won't forget this Jin. It is all your fault.
A contest entry
- Unbridled by JinSays.
1142 points, ended February 10, 7 entries
Bronze trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
Please tell me what you think, what it makes you feel, how you are moved.
Comments
1 - 28 of 28
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I enjoyed this piece. Can't pinpoint a specific reason. The imagery was wonderful, so easy to visualize the scene. Especially this line: 'The wind tangled her hair and set it flying to caress my face'. Wonderfully descriptive!
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Every scene has a moment, a detail and action that makes it coelesce into a memory full of feelings. This is what makes it real. I work a trying to see those. In this case her size and the wind in the hair capture so much more and give it the detail it needs to evoke the feelings. It isn't the story so much because we all know it. It is how it makes us recapture and re-experience our own feelings and remember our story that lets it work. Thanks, glad you enjoyed my vignette.
Love,
Tom B.
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Excellent
A very fine write, indeed. You always express your thoughts quite well. Thanks for sharing this one with us. -
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Relationships, dreams -- we are in a constant dance with partners we can't always claim to know or control. Life's adventure.
Peace & Light,
Tom B.
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Memories, they are something no matter if good or bad. In time some fade while we hold others in ours mind and hearts for ever. While your soul holds bermuda triangles, mine floated across the triangle with my soulmate on our honeymoon . I have learned memories make us who we have become by learning from them. without them, what would we have to look back on and laugh with others or simply sigh in sadness. This was a wonderful write.
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I have learned in many cases there are no answers, only moments.
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. It is one of the things I find most delightful about AP. Thanks for being part of it.
Love,
Tom B.
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"Every time the gulls laughed it was another fracture drawn across the muscle of my heart" - this is so beautiful...
The whole thing, wonderfully done.
True poetry.
-cassidy
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Thanks. I like to create vingettes that capture everything as much as possible in a moment. We all have them but often we are not available to see what is happening while we are not at home.
Love, Tom B.
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Siiiiiiiiigh.
I will take the blame Tom, and happily.
His name was Johny Warren. It was the summer of 89. I was 18 years old, my first year out of my mother's insane grip. It was Crystal Beach Texas, and he was from Colmesneil.
And for the last ten years or so, I'd forgotten all about him. this lovely write brought him sauntering back into my memory.
I welcome him, especially given what Im going through right now.
Thank you.
I stand accused, and proud of it
Love always,
jin
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Always glad to provide the wake up call.
Love, Tom B.
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Oh my...... I have tears in my eyes as I read this.
A summer not so long ago, but feels like an eternity.
Wonderful memories. thank you
Juls
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Hmm-m-m. Tell me more
Love, Tom B.
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I love and have loved at Virginia Beach Tom. The scene you paint could be a movie clip for a Summer romance that lasts in the hearts of both for a lifetime.
You, my dear are one of the most descriptive poets I have come across in my reading escapades. I am talking about even among the so called pros.
I felt every moment of this poem. The first lines reminds me of me and Ray when we embrace. That's where my "nose" fits. LOL
This passage crushed my heart;
"I wiped the hair out of my face, she looked up
saw my tears. I was unmanned. She stood on tiptoe
kissed me one last time. The ocean ran up the beach
with a vicious hiss. She disappeared."
A tenderly touching work of poetry is penned on this page. I hope you win the contest. Your poem is indeed worthy of the Gold.
Love Always ♥
Renee
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Wonderful compliment. For I want to write scences that breathe their way into the heart of the reader.
Love, Tom B.
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Hey! She sounds like me... and that freedom thing is habit forming but not always what it's cracked up to be... too much freedom and you wind up running from it too... or else you must re-learn to tolerate some old rules of engagement!
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Sure you weren't in VA Beach in '67.
Love, Tom B.
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Ouch.
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Yeap
Love,
Tom B.
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Summer, the beach, in Virgina where love always blooms and the gulls cry when you cry....I love the shore especially when I was really young...the romance, infatuation that you will always remember, now thanks to you I too remember my beach, and him.........excellent write Tom...novy
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The Byrds said it perfectly " I was so much older then, I am younger than that now."
I am glad to know that I am not the only one.
Love, Tom B.
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So we think differently,
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Tom, I've been there, too, only I was the girl and I had no idea what freedom meant. There were two young men who loved me at the same time when I was young, and I was caught in their expectations and my inexperience. War took them both. Sometimes an answer is final.
I love the way you write this memory, and my heart broke right along with yours in the reading.
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Somethings have no answers and we are left unraveling feelings.
Love, Tom B.
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Somethings move mountains in our hearts and from time to time a piece crumbles and falls.It was your time C
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There are time when you live me mystified.
Love, Tom B.
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Let Go
Continue in your healing process, let go let God. We are the Love of His reflection. May Goodness and kindness fill your heart. May the din in your shack diminish forever.
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I got my feelings. I review my life and pieces fall into place and I am a little freer than I was before. I am a little less frozen. I am still growing. You make marriage sound like a death sentence or a place where you cannot be but one way. It is not my experience of the joy a partner brings.
Love, Tom B. -
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Be Well
because you are perfection.
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