Saturday, September 14, 2013

I Wish for the Impossible

Today I wander past store fronts,
Lost in faces,
And in my own clothes.
I wish for impossible things:
Wishing, would you believe, to stroke
The throat of a unicorn?
Wishing for the touch of your fingertips on my face
Without having to remind you
How that tenderness is the highest height.

I am lost today.
My body is hurting
And my grandfather's death
Has left me on a lonely ship
Churning confusion in its wake.
It leaves me seeing faces, set like dominoes,
His as the catalyst tilting forward.
Death.
Inevitable.
I will live to see them all fall down.

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My grandpa died on Friday last.
A polarizing figure in our family. I'm wading through my own sorrow and wrote this while wandering.

7 comments:

  1. I'm glad that in the second stanza you shifted from the somewhat ethereal feel of the first stanza and brought the poem into the real world, providing a bridge for the two sets of emotions to mingle and find some common ground. This is what I always hope to see more of when perusing poetry blogs, but seldom do.

    My condolences.

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  2. Exceptional writing ! Relative to all! Sincerely Deborah

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  3. especially admire this:

    "dominoes/his is the catalyst tilting forward"

    wishing you peace in your turmoil. ~ M

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  4. The people in our lives make a huge compact just by living in proximity. The gap in the world when they are gone is quite palpable. I'm very sorry for your loss.

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  5. This is a beautiful expression of grief and loss. "Wishing, would you believe, to stroke
    The throat of a unicorn?" for me is that longing of the impossible... , too, am so sorry for your loss.

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  6. Thank you, Toads, for your sincere comments/condolences.

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  7. First, I'm so sorry about your loss... even when the person is a "polarizing figure," there is still that empty hole.

    Your thought of his being the first tilt in a long line of dominoes... I wondered whether the other dominoes where people or memories. Either way, it works for me, as my bad memories did indeed fall, one by one. Wishing you peace, Amy

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