We are halfway through National Poetry Month and I haven’t posted a poem. Shame on me!
I decided to post one of my own today and share someone else’s before month end! Enjoy…
REMEMBERING ROY
On my wall, the clock Roy made
loses time every day, but I dutifully reset it.
I keep it for the picture of my grandmother
he varnished onto the pine wood tree slice
that reminds me of a knotty pine cabin
in the mountains of California she once owned,
a string to a memory of a summer visit there that made me soar with dreams and happiness.
I keep it to remind me of him.
The clock of Roy’s heart stopped long ago
in a tragic way:
he was run over by his own car
as he tried to stop it from rolling down a hill.
Our possessions sometimes betray us;
our death can be entwined with them,
just as our life is entwined with them,
like ivy running wild,
over time crumbling the very bricks
it is attached to.
Roy, maybe you knew this;
you thought you could bypass it
by giving away your dreams:
the bricks of your life repurposed.
I remember the day you turned us loose
in your garage of clocks;
you told us to take what we wanted.
After their crafting was done
and your time was spent,
they no longer affirmed your life
or made money to live on,
just collected dust.
With bitter generosity you let them go
to pseudo grandkids,
like released birds you had once loved,
with hopes they would soar
somewhere you couldn’t.
Roy, I don’t even know where you are buried,
but across the country your clocks tick in small apartments,
twigs in the nests of lonely people;
where will they go from here?
Thought-provoking. And so true, how a material possession, like a clock, lives on so much longer than the maker and owner of the possession.’ I put a little of myself, somehow, in the possessions I value, so it will be held and loved by those after me.
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Pam, the things I value most either came from someone else or are things given to me by others.
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“but across the country your clocks tick in small apartments, twigs in the nests of lonely people” love that line. A beautiful poem and a wonderful tribute to Roy.
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Thanks, Susan! 🙂
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I was taken aback. This is a gem Sue – a freaking gem!
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Janna, your enthusiastic comments are much needed and always appreciated! 🙂
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