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Come Away With Me

Posted by Silver Spun Sand on March 7, 2009 - 21:31
from the ABC set Silver Spun Sand Poems

Do you recall that Tuesday, some years ago now –
you let on you were worried sick? Of course you don’t.
I’m just wasting my breath … Only, that’s when it began.
You’d go to a cupboard, a drawer – not the foggiest idea
what you went there for. Things got steadily worse.
Maybe you should see the quack, you asked. Perhaps
you had a propensity to Alzheimer’s? I kissed you.
Didn’t see much point; nothing they could do. Said
I’d only start to worry when you forgot ‘towel day’
was a Wednesday, or ‘sheet day’ was a Thursday.
Then, we’d slip between those freshly laundered sheets
and you’d say I wasn’t bad – not for my age, at least,
and the world went away, as you lost yourself in me.

If you forgot that Sunday – driving from our Joan’s,
High Wycombe to home, found myself in the coach-park
at Heathrow! And how a very kind copper respected
the fact I’d literally frozen – had a full-blown panic attack
when he tried to explain the journey back. How I said
I’d have to phone you. I felt confused and alone. In the end,
we drove in convoy. He led me to the northbound M1,
heading the right way this time. If you forgot that Mondays
was always ‘pizza day’, and to order a large Messerschmidt
olives on one side, pineapple – the other … Or if you forgot
my birthday; last Tuesday it was – not that it really matters.
Or that my favourite ever song is ‘Come Away With Me’.

Speaking of which, how about tomorrow – Friday, 13th.
An apt day, all things considered; if I could lay my hands
on the tickets, that is. We always did fancy Switzerland.
How would you feel about that? But for tonight though,
let’s just sleep on it. Pretend it’s all been a dream. Maybe
it has. Who are we to say? And when we wake …
half the joy of it, in the remembering.

Discuss this piece in the abctales forum


Comments

jennifer | March 8, 2009 - 14:06

Oh the last line is just superb.

So, so vivid.

J x

Silver Spun Sand | March 8, 2009 - 15:18

Thank you so much, Jennifer. You made my day:-)

Tina X

Ewan | March 8, 2009 - 18:04

Lovely, moving, sad.

Btw 'Messerschmidt' I suppose it means 'knife-smith' really.

Silver Spun Sand | March 8, 2009 - 18:56

Ewan - thank you so very much for putting me right. Have edited accordingly. It's not like me. I usually check and double check. I think the problem is, I was trusting my non-existent photographic memory and could have sworn it was always written like that on the menu. Thinking about it, probably it was:-)

Cheers anyway. At least the word makes sense now. Much obliged to you. Have a great week and glad you liked the poem:-)

Tina

threeleafshamrock | March 8, 2009 - 18:57

Beautiful Tina! I don't know where you get them from; Brilliant!

Chris XX

Silver Spun Sand | March 8, 2009 - 18:59

Ta muchly, Chris. I could ask the same of you:-)

Tina XX

threeleafshamrock | March 8, 2009 - 19:18

Congrats on the cherry, well deserved! ;)

Chris XX

Silver Spun Sand | March 8, 2009 - 19:36

Kind of you to pop back, Chris. I appreciate it.

Tina XX

MistakenMagic | March 8, 2009 - 20:30

This is a beautiful, tender tale Tina. Well done on the cherry! I couldn't possibly pick out my favourite lines!

Magic xxx

Silver Spun Sand | March 8, 2009 - 21:34

Bless you, Magic. Have a good week:-)

Tina xxx

niki72 | March 9, 2009 - 13:13

This bought a lump to my throat. Brilliant.

Niki

Silver Spun Sand | March 9, 2009 - 15:08

I really appreciate your comment, niki. Thank you for taking the time and trouble and for your kind words.

Tina

luigi_pagano | March 9, 2009 - 19:50

Very clever, Tina, and crafty too in the way you managed to shift from Alzheimer to Friday the 13th without showing the joint. Well written as usual.

Luigi xxx

AKT | March 10, 2009 - 21:55

This is wonderful and touching and I don't know what to say other than that really.

Nathan Bednarek | March 11, 2009 - 17:09

The others said it all Tina. This is wonderful.

Well done.

Nathan.

Silver Spun Sand | March 11, 2009 - 18:35

Me - crafty? Never, dear Luigi:-)

Thanks for reading. Glad you appreciated it.

Tina xxx

Silver Spun Sand | March 11, 2009 - 18:35

AKT - you said it all. Thank you:-)

Tina

Silver Spun Sand | March 11, 2009 - 18:36

Nathan - my thanks to you. The others might have said it all, but you added something special. Thank you.

Tina x

Steve | May 24, 2009 - 07:28

This could just as well be a poem.

Silver Spun Sand | May 25, 2009 - 15:09

I couldn't agree with you more, Steve. In fact, that is where I thought I had put it - in my 'poetry' collection.

Thanks for pointing it out, and for your interest, which is more than appreciated.

Tina:-)

Steve | May 25, 2009 - 23:38

Isn't poetry just the rhythm of our experiences translated into words. In our interior monologues, we try to do this. Since James Joyce literally wrote down the interior monologues or had characters write their own stories with the rhythm of their own personal experiences... it has become harder to tell the difference between poetry and prose.

Poetry, though, has a cob that is essentially musical... it is a motif of our lives that is vividly repeated throughout time.

Steve | May 26, 2009 - 00:22

My fault. It was in your poetry collection.

Sometimes my mind is on a psychic drug that my body naturally produces.

You know how hypnotic it can get staring at a computer screen.

Silver Spun Sand | May 26, 2009 - 07:37

'Poetry though, has a cob that is essentialy musical'...couldn't agree with you more. I play the piano, almost instinctively, and to me it is one and the same thing.

And by the way, I agree hands down about 'computer screen'. Hypnotic or what;-)

My thanks again, for your interest.

Tina