Open Poetry #47 |
On The First Anniversary My Heart Finally Broke (a repost) |
icebox Member Elite
since 2003-05-03
Posts 4383in the shadows |
Still, I hear the pipes sing Amazing Grace I hear them in my dreams I hear the screams every day, months of cadenced march out of an open pit mine of souls, all day long and through the night in and out of mind until my heart ran out of song. Today bells ring, performers sing and everybody's priests ask gods for treats. Each name a moment held in all solemnity on edge to slip into eternity; pomp and circumstance, a ceremony's tears and choking fears that this will mean an end to the beginning of the years we mark remembering the dead, the living dead whose names all run together, labels on one giant blended bleeding soul. If one more plastic politician says, ‘Let's roll,' I think I will be sick. The dead can sleep, where is the peace of heart and soul that could bring quiet to the living? We mourned a year. We buried buttons and a watch, a rock, handfuls of dirt and ash, a shoe or two, some bone fragments, photographs in empty caskets, memories in sleepless nights full of empty arms and empty beds tears in empty hearts. It's time to leave the past. For some, we became as Death in a time to stalk revenge cold and crafted with precision in deserts, fields and mountains, where we are hated for existing, where gods are left with questions, where evil breeds in men, where each victory brings two graves and politicians bend the world back into their greed. So, there are no answers and so, the killings never end. There is no grief beyond the love of that which death can steal. There is no deal to make, no memorial to shake the monstrous memories, the smell the taste of human flesh and blood in ashes mixed with fuel melted steel vaporized concrete, grit that clogged our eyes a blessing in disguise; shame of hoping winds would change, the dream's there every day, turn back and turn away run, no where to go, who died when there is nothing left to hold but memories' deadly clouds thick choking terror floating in toxic air, horror so full that vision's lost, sounds of bodies hitting ground just beyond the reach of sight within the sounds, the claws of fright, no where to hide. No where to hide. ©2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 by icebox (written, September 11, 2002; edited as above) |
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© Copyright 2011 icebox - All Rights Reserved | |||
serenity blaze Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738 |
"If one more plastic politician says, ‘Let's roll,' I think I will be sick. The dead can sleep, where is the peace of heart and soul that could bring quiet to the living?" If you don't know where that is? Then we are both lost. You're a visionary--a seer. I'll hug the cat sleeveless on this'n. |
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OwlSA Member Rara Avis
since 2005-11-07
Posts 9347Durban, South Africa |
Charly, I am a South African, so only know of the horror of 11 September 2002 from afar from what I have read and seen on TV and the Internet and know from my poet friends, yet I have shed many horrified tears, but probably not more than this raw masterpiece makes course down my cheeks. Thank you for keeping your poem alive and updated, and for remaining loyal in your love for those you knew and those you didn't and for the sheer and magnificent humanity in revealing the horror of "man's inhumanity to man" (Rabbie Burns). Owl |
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Margherita Member Seraphic
since 2003-02-08
Posts 22236Eternity |
Your personal pain comes through so powerfully, dear Charly, and your words bring back those tremendous emotions in everybody's heart. Every year the shivering sets in anew ... Love, Margherita |
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JerryPat2 Member Laureate
since 2011-02-06
Posts 16975South Louisiana |
Still, some disrespect the memory. Can't say more. Your words. Your words fill me with immense grief. ~~ The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again. ~~ |
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JL Member Ascendant
since 2004-04-01
Posts 6128Texas, USA |
"the smell the taste of human flesh and blood in ashes mixed with fuel melted steel vaporized concrete, grit that clogged our eyes a blessing in disguise;" Enjoyed the look back, because we can not ever forget. JL Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,and with all your mind. Love your neighbor as yourself. |
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ebonygirl Member Elite
since 2011-07-14
Posts 2000California U.S.A |
I relived that day through your poem, Thank you, Ms. E |
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suthern
since 1999-07-29
Posts 20723Louisiana |
Raw, personal... and universal. I don't think our hearts will ever stop breaking... nor should they. |
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luminosity Senior Member
since 2005-11-18
Posts 813 |
you have captured this moment for all time........sigh...sigh...sigh |
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icebox Member Elite
since 2003-05-03
Posts 4383in the shadows |
Thank you all for your time and your kind thoughts. |
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