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Open Poetry #32
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Mistletoe Angel
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Member Empyrean
since 2000-12-17
Posts 32816
Portland, Oregon

0 posted 2004-05-06 07:03 PM


(Here's an emotional re-post of a poem I performed recently at a Boulder poetry festival, as many friends find this to be one of my most heartbreaking yet beautiful poems!

(Hanky-Alert! )

    

Musical Chairs
By: Noah Eaton
2/5/00
(Revised 5/2/03)

Alone
Sitting on the porch swing in my backyard
I hear the back gate cry
Like a wind raping its will
Like the little girl I used to know
Who sparkled in her yellow Winnie the Pooh T-shirt
With blue eyes that made you believe in cherubs
Floated like a wedding gown on a clothesline
Like a simulacrum of a Strevens painting
Now I nod slowly
Thinking if the angels grieve
When my soul sister cries
But the sky is gray...

And I want to be innocent again
Won't someone turn the music on once more
I know I won't see her again
But I just want to pretend
My soul sister is still here
That she's still skipping around these chairs
Before I run to my room and cry...
Her face reminds me of a Pierre-Auguste Renoir portrait
Envisioning the tears in her eyes
Lost in some Luncheon of a Boating Party
Looking at her youthful face sadly like Morisot's "The Cradle"
Your beach ball is still lying in my sandbox
And your jacks and Raggedy-Ann dolly
Before my playground disappeared from me...

And I want to be innocent again
Won't someone turn the music on once more
I know I won't see her again
But I just want to pretend
My soul sister is still here
That she's still skipping around these chairs
Before I run to my room and cry...
I feel like a stranger on our old swingset
And I have twenty questions I can't express
Wondering if the angels grieve
And if the pain is more than it seems
And no one is listening to me...

The mountains don't even understand how I am feeling
The nights feel too long and I just can't sleep them through
God knows He wants me to move on
But there's no practical influence to look upon
As I'm still playing this game of musical chairs
Like a tree with a tornado stripping its branches bare
It rather feels like duck, duck, goose
They took you way too soon
This is a game I want to lose...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Sorry...
.
.
.
sorry...
.
.
.
sorry...
.
.
.
sorry...
.
.
.
I didn't turn off the music,
.
.
.
I JUST WANT TO PRETEND,
.
.
.
YOU'RE STILL HERE...
.
.
.
And I want to be innocent again
Won't someone turn the music on once more
I know I won't see her again
But I just want to pretend
My soul sister is still here
That she's still skipping around these chairs
Before I run to my room and cry...

And I want to be innocent again
I'm still standing here alone
My heart and soul are bleeding
My knees feel weak and asleep
The music is dead
And no one is listening to me
Standing here between this circle of party hats and musical chairs...

    


"You'll find something that's enough to keep you
But if the bright lights don't receive you
You should turn yourself around and come back home" MB20

© Copyright 2004 Nadia Lockheart - All Rights Reserved
GlisteningRain
Member
since 2004-05-06
Posts 103
The clouds
1 posted 2004-05-06 09:35 PM


Whoa. That was intense. I especially like this part:

"I hear the back gate cry
Like a wind raping its will
Like the little girl I used to know
Who sparkled in her yellow Winnie the Pooh T-shirt
With blue eyes that made you believe in cherubs"

It added such a realness to the innocence of a child. The little girl you used to know. Did this really happen to you?

EvocativeVerse2
Senior Member
since 2003-09-10
Posts 1279

2 posted 2004-05-06 09:44 PM


Hi Noah. WOW! This took my world away. I'd say breath...but...(I'm still breathing.) What I mean though is I was pulled into your piece and carried along by the words. It is a great poem my friend. Bravo!

Remember, if you're not part of the future, you're history!

Opeth
Senior Member
since 2001-12-13
Posts 1543
The Ravines
3 posted 2004-05-06 09:47 PM


Noah... this poem was wrought with feeling, intensity, emotional persuasion, and pure good writing.

Enjoyed!

Brad Majors
Deputy Moderator 5 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Elite
since 2001-04-03
Posts 2647
Georgia
4 posted 2004-05-07 12:40 PM


sad but beautiful piece
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