REDISCOVERED POEMS

In another life I wrote a poem. I refined and revised it, and then I put it away and forgot about it. I found it the other day when I was looking for something else. After reading it a couple of times I began to revise it some more and this is the end result:

Endgame

Even then

you are still angry.

(Anger masks my great sadness and distress)

You say the removal men are also angry with me;

You’re still not packed and we must be out by midday!

So I ask them:

No it’s all in hand,

this is nothing unusual.

2.30 pm.

Mopped floors and clean rooms.

This house is pristine.

Yet I am terrorised by you, one last time,

you and that pathetic need you have

to be viewed as “nice” by the people moving in.

You invest goodbye with meaning,

then walk, then run down the garden path,

I am left standing with the dreck of our relationship:

two toilet brushes

Later

The removal man says:

Don’t worry, I see it all the time,

this is no worse than usual.

What do you make it? I am not going to explain the background or say anything about it, but I would be interested in your opinions.

Another poem I would like your opinion on.

ANNIVERSARY POEM

Saturday morning shopping.

Our first anniversary.

We buy cheap fruit

and with a machine

you will steal its essence,

then discard the broken husks.

An image chimes in my head,

we are simply two people,

wringing out the last drops.

It’s an interesting feeling coming back to forgotten old poems. Poems that hold emotions like insects in amber.

I may have put this up before, over nearly two years I have posted a lot of poems, my apologies if you have seen this before.

There is no absolution,

don’t worry, no one knows.

No way to iron the creases

from that shiny suit of clothes.

No wait for hell to freeze,

or adopt some holy pose.

No point to the crucifixion,

don’t worry, no one knows

This is fascinating, as it espouses beliefs that I do not hold. I think there is the possibility of redemption for all humans. I believe we can all change. I think at times I have lived in a place where it was harder to believe than it now is.

There is a reason for all these old poems being posted. I am writing a sequel to my novel, TheJowler and my attention is on prose. Plus I am also involved in a new project with Alison Wilson (who wrote a wonderful guest post last year). So I am rather busy. There will be new poems soon.

Have a good weekend.