Leaving Home
By marandina
- 3572 reads
Rain falls as drizzle – recalcitrant, obstinate,
framing a doorway filled by fretful parents,
staring into a no man’s land of sadness,
one last, lingering look back then
an overflowing car boot clunks shut.
Engine fires, a watershed journey begins,
asphalt roads intersect urban jungles,
silent witnesses of the end of childhood,
bystanders at midnight, counterfeit glass slippers
shoe horned onto the feet of purgatory.
I glance reflectively in the rear view mirror
and see many faces from my past,
ghosts of grandparents and uncles,
now formed of stardust and memories,
kith and kin – an ancestral bloodline of yesteryear.
I remember all of the good times,
epiphanies to counter daily stoicism,
intermittent family struggle and strife,
revering those occasions of happiness and hope,
Christmas souls lit by fairy lights on trees.
A hinterland of cross-city grey ends,
an empty house filled with promise awaits.
I look ahead to an unwritten future where
fault lines of free will and fate meet,
brush strokes on the canvas of life.
Image free to use at WikiCommons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rear-view_mirror.jpg
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Comments
Bloody hell. This is great.
Bloody hell. This is great.
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Yes, you capture it well.
Yes, you capture it well. Well done.
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This is our Pick of the Day.
This is our Pick of the Day. Please do share on Facebook and Twitter.
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Well done Paul. Great poem.
Well done Paul. Great poem.
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Oh, thank you. We're only
Oh, thank you. We're only doing a very limited single print run. All signed and numbered. You heard it here first :).
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yeh, we see each other, but
yeh, we see each other, but rarely outself. Well done.
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Hi Paul,
Hi Paul,
great poem that I can totally relate to in so many ways.
Jenny.
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beautifully expressed - made
beautifully expressed - made me feel for all the young people whose lives have been so disrupted these past couple of years, and who might not have experienced this - poor things. Anyway, a very well deserved pick, and has anyone been on at you yet to read this (or anything else!) at our virtual reading event? I do hope you can make it!
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"an empty house filled with
"an empty house filled with promise awaits." I liked this very much :0)
Am dreading when my son leaves, though, "no man's land" is a brilliant phrase here, the double meaning of childhood home being no place for a man, but also the meaning in a battlefield, no more arguments about washing piling up behing the bedroom door or where have all the plates and glasses gone? Not that that would apply to you :0)
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Nice, nostalgic poem on the
Nice, nostalgic poem on the end of childhood. As always a well-written poem that is very evocative of times gone by.
hilary
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I did enjoy this! You have
I did enjoy this! You have written it well. It shows the feelings of leaving home, moving on, very well!
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