Sunday 5 July 2015

Afterwards









It feels like a slight; unbearable snub
that everything’s the same, not one bloom
from the vases has drooped, the garden shrub
you had planted is still upright, the room
just as it was before, the cushions rubbed
threadbare where you had sat.  The planet zooms
on its exact track, no change in pace or hub.
Only you are gone, even your perfumes
linger still in wardrobes and empty gloves.
Ashes to ashes. A deadpan earth subsumes
every flake till nothing is left above.
The house’s strangely unchanged. I resume,
but with shifts in meanings of loss and love.





For a grieving friend, with love, respect and wishes for strength and peace as she copes with her loss.










8 comments:

  1. Good bye my love good bye
    your dreams and mine touched
    stars shined down from above
    sweet honeysuckle in the air
    good bye till we meet again
    my heart beating out this life
    knowing there will be a time we’ll
    see each other again for eternity


    The lost of a love one
    rips deep into ones soul

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    Replies
    1. It does indeed. and an untimely loss is even more difficult..

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  2. Hi Nila! I'm back. My iPad kept freezing up when I tried to comment when overseas. I was by reading your poems though.
    This is so poignant: 'the cushions rubbe
    threadbare where you had sat'. What a very powerful tribute to your grieving friend and the untimely loss.

    Denise :-)

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    Replies
    1. Hi Denise! Welcome back! Looking forward to more photos and travel writing on your blog. I find it really hard to blog while travelling, so hat's off to you :-)

      'Nothing in the house had changed, just the person who had made it a home wasn't there' - my friend said that, and it so resonated with me. Life can be rough at times, even though beautiful.

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  3. A beautiful tribute, Nila!
    I love the way you portray the change as being something that you cannot actually 'put your finger on'...
    It's a mental/emotional shift... subtle... and subjective too.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Michelle! Change is easier felt than pinned down in words, and the greater, more overwhelming the change the more difficult is it to be objective about it..

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