Thursday,
Finished this today after I spent a little time reading Whitman. Sadly, I never read much of Walt. I'm highly uneducated when it comes to poetry's American roots. Maybe a "little" of the Whitman style rubbed off on this poem.
They're watching me again,
the shadows are. Right outside
the window. They huddle there,
a small crowd, a lump of gray
goo stuck to the bark, to the branches,
the leaves of the grandfather oak
right outside my pathetic window.
Annoying they can be . . . sometimes.
Even evening strains to whistle
them away . . . go . . . away!
Slither away, find some other place
to loiter, somewhere else to haunt,
someone else to bother.
And you, there, I can feel you there,
no need to deny it with silence,
no need to pretend it’s all in my head.
I can smell you picking at the lock.
I can taste you too, a bitter tongue taste.
Why can’t I spit you out, drown you out?
I should get up, flick the bedroom light on,
slam the blinds shut, jam a sturdy, wooden chair
beneath the doorknob’s chin.TV on, full blast, cat
screeching loud, shadows screaming,
steel-grip fingertips garroting the ears.
I can’t hear you anymore.
I will not listen anymore.
You’re dead . . . violently dead to me.
rrw o9-12-13
Finished this today after I spent a little time reading Whitman. Sadly, I never read much of Walt. I'm highly uneducated when it comes to poetry's American roots. Maybe a "little" of the Whitman style rubbed off on this poem.
Shadows
They're watching me again,
the shadows are. Right outside
the window. They huddle there,
a small crowd, a lump of gray
goo stuck to the bark, to the branches,
the leaves of the grandfather oak
right outside my pathetic window.
Annoying they can be . . . sometimes.
Even evening strains to whistle
them away . . . go . . . away!
Slither away, find some other place
to loiter, somewhere else to haunt,
someone else to bother.
And you, there, I can feel you there,
no need to deny it with silence,
no need to pretend it’s all in my head.
I can smell you picking at the lock.
I can taste you too, a bitter tongue taste.
Why can’t I spit you out, drown you out?
I should get up, flick the bedroom light on,
slam the blinds shut, jam a sturdy, wooden chair
beneath the doorknob’s chin.TV on, full blast, cat
screeching loud, shadows screaming,
steel-grip fingertips garroting the ears.
I can’t hear you anymore.
I will not listen anymore.
You’re dead . . . violently dead to me.
rrw o9-12-13
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