Tuesday, May 24, 2011

I'm not good with words


I’m not good with words.
One time we saw all those
newspapers piled up,
rubber-banded, so we
thought we’d help dad and
stacked them in the red wagon
and delivered every one, mostly
to the wrong houses.

I’m not good with words.
One day we were cold so
we said let’s build a campfire
like the pioneers did and
we piled up sticks and paper
and some books and lit it,
our bedroom suffering
only minor damage.

I’m not good with words.
He got sick, you know. That’s
not supposed to happen
when you’re young enough
to live forever but it did,
and he kept laughing as he
faded, laughing harder
until he faded, then gone.

I never was good with words.

This poem is submitted for One Shot Wednesday hosted by One Stop Poetry. Too see more submitted poems, please visit the site. The links will be live at 4 p.m. Central time today.

Photograph: Grief at Cemetery by Petr Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

16 comments:

Maureen said...

Strong contrast between image and words. . . and what we remember and can say when the words we feel don't come.

Unknown said...

ugh, this made me a little misty. sometimes words are hard to come by.

Brian Miller said...

glynn that last stanza strikes like a ball peen hammer...dang man...i was all smiling at the first two and whew...

Brian Miller said...

and thank you glynn...you make me smile when i see your tweets...so giving to others...and you can write too...smiles.

Anonymous said...

Each image is strong, well realized. Will have to ponder a while.

David Rupert said...

What a great bit of verse that mde me smile

ayala said...

The images strong and the sentiment of love and sadness really moved me!

Rinkly Rimes said...

The unsaid came through very strongly in this poem.

moondustwriter said...

I was looking at the crosses thinking of Memorial Day and how the events of childhood and youth stack up against fighting on foreign soil.

Best to Glynn and thanks for the weekly support

Patricia said...

I feel sadness for the child who wasn't heard over understandable childish acts and the young man who couldn't find the words for loss or death.

S. Etole said...

This leaves me with none ...

Unknown said...

Everything changes after a death, nothing is the same. It's as though the Earth itself is turned on a tangent and people think in ways they didn't before: I was the one who wasn't good with words...

JofIndia said...

One of your most powerful, Glynn. The paradox of communicating with words what can't be explained in words...

Anonymous said...

A small slice of life which painted the larger picture. Nice capture...

hedgewitch said...

Words do have unexpected consequences, as does the inartful use of them, but here they do a yeoman's job of telling a serious and universal tale. Very nicely done.

Kodjo Deynoo said...

Nice piece well expressed in words.