Reanimated Lavender Granola Switchblade Nun rides again.

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

letter

A house
inhabited 
by blackbirds.
A window
where a woman stood
after losing her child.
A lawn
once anointed
with lemonade.
A fence 
repaired three times
by the same hands.
A porch
where a deaf dog
slept away his days. 
No car
with JUST MARRIED
and a suitcase in the back.
A letter saying
VACATE. UNSAFE.
THIS PROPERTY CONDEMNED. 
______

for dverse poetics. photograph by sharon knight.

 

11 comments:


  1. This was almost bleaker than the image... I feel the story of the lost child strong.

    BTW I fixed your link back to Mr Linky

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  2. An accurate portrait of love and loss.

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  3. This was crop-dusted with ‘sweeeping insensitivity’ labeled ‘very sensitive’ The music video was a matching endlessly emotive (and no emoji seems right right now) Dark and darker

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  4. What a beautiful, tragic ghost story, leaving holes in all the right places, allowing me to imagine --- that her child drowned in the bathtub, that it was the mother's fault, that she killed herself after (at least in spirit, if not in body).

    I love imagining that sometimes her spirit is visible in human form, but more often she foregoes skin, presenting as a flock of blackbirds trapped inside this house of death.

    I love what you did with the symbolism. How her husband was there (fixing fences) but then wasn't (as a deaf dog, sleeping all the time). Then the way you made *her* the house --- condemned and dangerous, warning others, especially her husband, to vacate ... because she's no longer safe to be around.

    I like the line break after "No car" to suggest that maybe this happened several decades ago, before families necessarily had a car. It emphasizes the contrast with present day, making it clear that this is a ghost story --- a house the whole town drives by, but knows to stay away from.

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  5. Oh, the heartbreaking stories that old houses hold. I feel the mother at the window who has lost her child. And I can see the deaf old dog, a black lab, I think, with a white grizzled snout. Beautifully done, Shay.

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  6. Very nice! I especially liked the part about the fence, repaired 3 times by the same hands. All the love that goes into a home and they all come to this.

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  7. Each phrase paints another layer of the story, another layer of tragedy.

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  8. As always, eloquent and lucent images, brief as life, make this poem a shattering light on the ways and homes of the heart. Beautiful poem, Shay, which doesn't just describe, but illuminates the photograph.

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  9. This is a great listing of life and loss. I absolutely have no critical objectivity with this. Adored. La la Mosk!

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  10. Reminds me of this on, my choice for best song in the past 20 years. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xID7AxShew0

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  11. A lot of water had passed under the bridge. These were not all smooth and easy. Very thoughtful take Shay!

    Hank

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Spirit, what do you wish to tell us?