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Frailty

Darkness sometimes shudders
on the broken edges of my loneliness,
beaten back by you, by us,
from the empty shoreline of the island
that I used to be, never farther than
the next time I am gone from you.

In our garden hot in beating August sun,
hands in black soil, Daylilies and Black-eyed Susans,
Purple Coneflowers all seeding,
I sometimes taste metallic bleakness
of the nightmare that would be
life bereft of you,
and in that sudden perception of emptiness
I simply stop, lost long enough
to feel my ending.

When I am at work, bright offices all empty
as I wait alone for one more battlefield
of things gone wrong
in busy warehouse systems,
the realization hits
that without you none of this
would mean anything at all,
that I would walk away from everything
if you were gone.

And on those nights when you take our kids
on overnight visits to your father’s house
and I am left alone,
the spaces of our silent home
don’t echo with any memory
of you and our children,
and I wander restless through
long lonely night and empty rooms,
sleepless in the frailty of loneliness
I never felt before your life
became my own.

About This Poem

Last Few Words: Old poem

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Intensity: I want the raw truth, feel free to knock me on my back

Editing Stage: Editing - polished draft

About the Author

Region, Country: Earth Vicinity (within a five light-year radius), ZZC

Favorite Poets: John Donne, T.S. Eliot, Serendipity, Emily Dickenson, Kailashana, Charles Bukowski, Kabir, Rett, Dalton, W. B. Yeats, William Blake, Rainer Maria Rilke, and many other Neopoet poets; Neopoet has heavily influenced my poetry and my ability to write it well.

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Comments

Frederick Kesner

Frederick Kesner

14 years 3 months ago

The opening lines

stunned me and beckoned the mind to continue reading. Each stanza sweeping as waves upon the the shore. I particularly like the transitioning from one visual scenario to another thus unifying the poems image - the loneliness, bleakness, emptiness and restlessness.

Race_9togo

Race_9togo

14 years 3 months ago

Thanks Fred,

This one is a measure of what Neopoet has done for me in terms of poetry. This was edited and changed very little, because I used everything I learned here to write it.
I'm glad it had such an impact!

Pixee

Pixee

14 years 3 months ago

I agree

I have to agree with cryptibarb. This is a deep poem. I can tell it came from deep inside. I enjoyed reading it. I believe that this is a wonderfully written poem. Keep on keeping on. Read you later.

Cheers,

Pixee

Race_9togo

Race_9togo

14 years 3 months ago

Hi Pixee

Glad that you enjoyed this one so much.
It's one of my favorites. When my wife read this - she reads all of my poetry, she's my first and best editor - she loved it, but it also upset her so much that she has not gone to visit her Dad without me since reading.
Which is cool because I love the old man!

Thanks Pixee,

Race_9togo

Race_9togo

14 years 3 months ago

Thanks Shirl

Glad that you enjoyed this one. Regarding the woman involved, you would not have wanted to know me at all, before I came to know her.
You can imagine how little bullshit she tolerates!
heehee