Ben
By Silver Spun Sand
Sun, 01 Nov 2015
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4 comments
It wasn’t meant to be this way...
I never ever saw you – never looked
in awe and wonder on your face; felt
those tiny fingers curl, tight, around mine
watched you feed at your mother’s breast...
eager tongued – mouth fringed in white
like a sea-shell on the shoreline, caught
in frothy ripples of an incoming tide....
It wasn’t meant to be this way...
never rocked you to sleep in my arms
with prayers that God would keep you safe...
no matter what, no matter when. Never
made notches on your wardrobe door
told you stand as tall as you could,
but not on tippy-toes mind, whilst I
measured how much you’d grown
from one month to the next...
No – it wasn’t meant to be this way...
me – going up, and you coming down,
but I like to think, though, that I met you
in that peerless moment on the way –
leads from this world to the next;
your joyous ‘hello’... my sad farewell;
your kiss – soft on my cheek, but
know this, that once, son, I did
breathe your name.
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Comments
What a gorgeously placed
What a gorgeously placed piece, embedded with heart splinters, imbued with the dense knots of birth and loss at once. You name Ben with such subtlety and restraint in the title that you almost miss his title. I think what this poem shows keenly are emotive polar opposites - one in, one out, all that unsaid in between. The name said but in passing.
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No wonder this received
Permalink Submitted by loquaciousicity on
No wonder this received cherries... they should have cherries with tears...
nuff said!
Terry
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