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gilead
Senior Member

since 2008-03-10

Posts 1067
nevada, USA

0 posted 2008-05-08 05:08 PM

For Tommy

The soot of despair seeds the ashen clouds
now turning heavily dark, and soon there is rain, steady and gentle—
black mud falling upon the landscape of the mind.
He enters the closet and slides his fingers along the shelf.
Ah, there it is, cold metal, dark and shiny blue.

A shot not heard around the world, just a “bang without a whimper”
ignored by the reveling drunks in the other rooms, adjacent,
above, and below, just another mess to be investigated
and cleaned up, and forgotten, except for a poet
who thinks it is worthy of a small accounting—
a history that will never be a subject in any classroom,
not even an honorable mention in the chronicles
of the lost and insignificant.

Alas, Tommy, so soon, so soon
after I shook your cold, quaking hand;
It was not meant to say, goodbye . . .

[This message has been edited by gilead (05-09-2008 02:50 PM).]

gilead
Senior Member

since 2008-03-10

Posts 1067
nevada, USA

1 posted 2008-05-08 05:24 PM

I lived for a while in an area of Las Vegas that can best be described as despair bordering the edge of opulence. I met many broken and lonely people there.

Art

Earth Angel
Member Empyrean

since 2002-08-27

Posts 40215
Realms of Light

2 posted 2008-05-08 05:37 PM

Stark, cold, sad, tragic . . . and such a waste. Your poet's eyes see, your poet's heart feels, and you poet's hand wrote a very compassionate poem on Tommy's ill-fated passing.

God bless you and all those who live under intolerable life circumstances.

Linda

Robert E. Jordan
Member Rara Avis

since 2008-01-25

Posts 8541
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

3 posted 2008-05-08 10:10 PM

Art,

The world is full of the "lost and insignificant", they constitute the majority.

It's sad about your friend. This, for some reason brought to mind a nephew, who died of Hepatitis "B", after being released from prison.

Bobby

Marchmadness
Member Rara Avis

since 2007-09-16

Posts 9271
So. El Monte, California

4 posted 2008-05-09 02:16 AM

Reading this makes me realize why there are poets.
Ida

Margherita
Member Seraphic

since 2003-02-08

Posts 22236
Eternity

5 posted 2008-05-09 10:08 AM

Dear Art, this is such a fine tribute to a broken man and so deeply touching.

Love,
Margherita

gilead
Senior Member

since 2008-03-10

Posts 1067
nevada, USA

6 posted 2008-05-09 10:24 AM

Thanks, Linda, for your, as always, perceptive and sensitive comments.

Art

Thank you, Bobby. Yes it seems that life has a special knack for kicking one in the butt at the most inopportune of times! And death says to freedom---"I am here to put an end to any happiness you intend to bring!"

Art

And you are right, Ida. Not only the sunshine in the clouds, but we poets probe the dark side as well, looking, I suppose, for the whole of truth.

Thanks,

Art

Hi, Margherita, I always appreciate your kind and thoughtful comments.

Best wishes,

Art

Martie

Moderator

Member Empyrean

since 1999-09-21

Posts 28049
California

7 posted 2008-05-23 05:51 PM

hi gilead...I've not read you before, but I saw the comment you left in Sunshine's post today and came to see your poetry. You have a way of description mixed with heart that makes an event come to life, as you did in this poem. Welcome to Pip, belatedly.

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