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Dream

of peculiar flowers/like sound of laughter/fluid in words you could spell/only after lettering down/libations on territories/virgin with mystic bites/of your footsteps/creating gardens/of hope beyond tales

Monday, January 6, 2014

September, 2053



Like cats lick
their dead kittens
we gather by
your lifeless body
and make promises
with our tongues
brushing against our teeth
We cry for ourselves
knowing you will let
your body smell nasty for once
in the insides of our red sand
and we can not turn the shower on
and tell you ‘it is not too cold’

Your bones will be useless even to dogs
six feet too deep
yet too shallow
to hold up the memories
you created with us
every morning
you shake me awake,
point out the wrinkles on my dress
remove the dirt in my nails
yell at everything
Breakfast will be cold,
I walk too slow,
My hair needs oiling,
do I not see that
my hair needs oiling?

Six feet too shallow
to hold our conversations
on how I need Christ,
how you need me to have money for me,
and then I tell you about my dreams
and you send smiles and say
‘ok, hurry before I get too old’
You yell at me some more
for drinking the milk you left
for the cats whom you understood better than me

You did everything for me
didn’t you?
Now I have to learn to cry
for myself
Because you are not here to do it,
like you did every night
after I told you
that my dreams were not mine.


16 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Lord Nana I love it! It made me feel like one who had lost their mother or elder sister

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  2. This poem is so vivid with images and full of poignant lines- some of my favorite lines include "like cat lick/ six feet too deep yet too shallow/ six feet too shallow to hold our conversations on how i need christ/". Well done @Nana you're back with a bang :)

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  3. been waiting for a post for ages! I really like these lines
    "Now I have to learn to cry
    for myself
    Because you are not here to do it,
    like you did every night
    after I told you
    that my dreams were not mine."

    The poem reminds me of the opening lines of John Dryden's "Mac Flecknoe" -
    "All human things are subject to decay,
    And, when Fate summons, monarchs must obey"

    It is hard to believe that some people will die, when they do die we realise how much of us they were.

    Happy New Year Nana.

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    Replies
    1. Happy New Year Amma! You more than anybody has kept me company on this blog. I thank you. And thank you for introducing me to John Dryden.

      "It is hard to believe that some people will die, when they do die we realise how much of us they were." charley! poetry everywhere. :)

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    2. It has been a pleasure. Still is. :)
      Haha...poetry de3 3y3!

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  4. Amazing.. simple yet powerful. it depicits the agony and void that is death. Great one

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  5. Replies
    1. oh MisBeee, you have only kind words, don't you? Thank you very much. :-)

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