Oct 22, 2011

Poetry: The Forgotten

For the persona poem challenge at dVerse.

The clock on the tower struck a grim 12 high noon
And I observed the lunch-goers like I do every day
They laugh and they chuckle and they talk on their phones
Without even bothering to spare a glance my way 

You can see, can't you?

I sit in the shadows, contemplating my life
Wondering how it was this place and time came to be
There was a point, one dim past, where I was a lunch-goer too
But that past is in tatters, I am now only what you see

But you don't see, do you?

I remember the day when my world fell to pieces
I came home to my wife, who was walking out the door
And it was only gradually, after days of denial
That I realized she wasn't coming back anymore

I didn't see either, you know?

And somehow, some way, in some time, it came to this
My emotions were so broken that I fell away from life
I hit that non-life-rock-bottom and could never climb out
It was a pit so-far deep as the depths of my strife

But you can't see that, can you?

And now I sit all day, underneath the sun, wind, and rain
My hopes of recovery long dashed, long, long ago
I gave up on the world in a damn far distant past
And the world, so scorned, she also let me go

That's why you don't see me, you know?

The clock on the tower is about to strike 12 midnight
Yet I keep sitting even while the mercury descends
Because at this point, house, wealth, life ruined
I can do nothing else but hope for the end

But you'll never see that, will you?

14 comments:

  1. This is a chilling read from beginning to end. Whew!

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  2. Nick! Fantastic writing here (not going to tell where I've been that makes it so very relate-able to me!) I can feel the life that was had, the life that was lost, and am left anxiously awaiting midnight.

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  3. Kind of chilling... nice piece.

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  4. Anonymous10/22/2011

    i was thinking, what if the world was literaly going to pieces, and you went to spend the last minutes with your wife, but she was gone, what would you do?

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  5. wow i really feel for this guy....life came at him fast ball chest high and he missed...sad hard reality here man...

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  6. This is truly an other voice. I think about how animals, when they are going to die, crawl away to some shadowed place to be alone. You take us into the head of a person tragically doing that.

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  7. thanks for making us see him... there are things that can destroy a person's life..i've met doctors who ended up on the street because of an unlucky chain of things going wrong and they just never got over them..

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  8. Powerful and gut-wrenching. I really feel for your "other" person. This stanza really struck out at me:

    And somehow, some way, in some time, it came to this
    My emotions were so broken that I fell away from life
    I hit that non-life-rock-bottom and could never climb out
    It was a pit so-far deep as the depths of my strife

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  9. 5 Wows here.

    I see You! What a persona piece, my friend! this is a keeper few sure.
    well constructed and the repetition is perfect.

    I'm telling ya: this piece turns out better than the speaker does.

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  10. oh and BTW... it's NOT 'few' but 'fer' ...I hate to be corrected by bots.

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  11. Abandonment triggers so many reactions in so many people of all ages. Some can cope, some can't but eventually learn to, and some never do. Another tender take on what it means to be alone, to be without guidance, companionship, self-esteem, and to sink into poverty, homelessness, neglect and eventually death. Very sad indeed. Well done with the repeating line reinforcing the misery.

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  12. Wow! The male experience of a broken marriage that we don't often get to hear about. You tell it well.

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  13. Hello.
    Visiting from The Poetry Pantry.

    WoW! This is a hard-hitting, gut-wrenching piece. I have to agree with Adura...the male's experience is rarely spoken about.

    Well done!

    Thanks for sharing.

    Undress Me With Your Sultry Eyes

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  14. powerful piece on a sad marriage, wow.
    you got the skill in story telling.

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