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Sleet Not Expected to End
Dark all day. Wet. Squalls are strong- arming rain into sleet. Bullets of ice calibrated to penetrate asap. Sudden let-up silhouettes a woman struggling to say upright. Kids look to be hers. Boy maybe 4, girl, maybe 6. Hard to tell. See a doctor scrawl Question survive. Now big-eyed and street-wise stick figures step in others' steps, take their chances Doesn't help passing thunderheads are seeding pellets. Hatched shadows cross against a hoar-frosted light. Flapflapflap rap soles between slips and slides. All of us stumble, slide, try to right. Feet and noses numb as lightning Z's Zoro-like between corner buildings. Don't let reflected light fool. Meet the Prince of Darkness. Soul so charred, neither ice nor human can revive. Sees petals once gold freeze to the sunken cheeks of a 6-year-old, laughs and packs wet snow around a rock. Sleet is blinding, but those pants she has on are Men's. Cut off, but still she trips. Mom helps her up. Boy slogs on, his cowlick an inverted icicle or diamond stalagmite. Most of the down has leaked from his jacket. Mom's coat doesn't button or zip. Fished from a bin says Help. Brrrr. Frankenstein's-monster- stiff, but aliiiiiiive. Aliiiiiiii. . .oh no. Red neon Coffee. Good and Hot. Smell wafts as the door swings. Holiday'd windows with white fur mullions show Cheshires over forksful of eggs. Butter drips. Soul for a doughnut. Crunch a cop's shoes. Shelter's down that way. Stomp-stomp. Person could freeze on a night like this.
Your literary artistry is never anything less than remarkable. In these condensed lines we have a veritable biography of an entire family and a chilling portrait of a too-cruel too-indifferent society. Somehow, despite the pain there is beauty, and despite the shame there is wisdom and dignity. Takes a Poet to make us see what we perhaps would rather not.
Aberjhani
One sees the storm come to life through your powerful slice of life...very well done! Enjoyed this one--if you're sick of the rain/snow/sleet, send it Texas' way...I wouldn't mind. :)
This grabs the readers attention all the way from the stark black of the fine print to the dire circimstatial images that scream at me to want to go out there and find them kids and their mother and give them what they need so despartaly...
I cannot do that but this has definately inspired me to make another donation to the local shelter for the homeless and hopefully more who read this will do the same. Thanks for the reality check Phyllis
You did it again. Presented things as they are; no judgment, no lectures from the poet. A slice of life; to real for words -- left me feeling grateful I have a place to rest my bones. Great piece of work.
A further collection of poems, many from years in the Middle East, but also the California San Francisco and Central Coast areas (Santa Cruz, Carmel, Big Sur, Berkeley, etc.).
From First Love to its destructive end and on to new beginnings, Mary Angela Nangini's poems explore the birth and death of a relationship. The powerful poems are presented in two parts with an introduction to her next book My Ontario Beautiful. (Th
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I can only agree with all who commented... great, effective work and exquisite mood setting!
Gina
Regis
Hugs,
V~
Aberjhani
One sees the storm come to life through your powerful slice of life...very well done! Enjoyed this one--if you're sick of the rain/snow/sleet, send it Texas' way...I wouldn't mind. :)
(((HUGS))) and love, Karla.
Love Tinka
God bless,
Sandie.
You are a master with word play
Peter
I cannot do that but this has definately inspired me to make another donation to the local shelter for the homeless and hopefully more who read this will do the same. Thanks for the reality check Phyllis
Felix
Carmen :-)