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| Kerry O'Connor |
We bury our lovers beneath the weight of days
thought to be so numberless and varied
until we have forgotten their names, until we
can no longer reach back through time to grasp
the hour, the breathless minute when we turned
old earth, threw clods upon remembrance too.
But I’m tired of this shallow grave; bury me deeper.
I just love this, the forgetting, the throwing of dirt, the final request. So packed and deep, ironically.
ReplyDeleteThe truth always lies in the irony!
DeleteThank you, Colleen.
It seems no matter how many days there is still some memory that lingers, even if name is forgotten. The last line really solidifies it, to not just shallowly remember but to bury and forget entirely.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe we ever forget the ones we have loved this side of the grave.
Deleteyes there is a tendency to take relationships like drinks of water...seemingly necessary but soon forgotten....bkm
ReplyDeleteIf only...
DeleteIt seems we're both seeing ghosts these days.
ReplyDeleteSometimes ghosts are more apparent than the living.
DeleteOh! This interring stirs those memories and some passing visuals of some old loves and all that they represented once — this is a kind of a requiem in reversal. The desire to be buried in it deeper oddly made me smile. A thoroughly personal and evocative verse, Kerry!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your response was a wry smile.. I feel that has met with my intentions.
Delete;-)
no matter how deeply we bury the past, we can't bury the ghosts of loved ones. We can try but...
ReplyDeleteThat's the truth.
DeleteI like the way you’ve used line breaks and enjambment in this poem, Kerry, the tight rein on emotion all the way through, and then the final line grabbed my heart and squeezed it.
ReplyDeleteOh, how lovely to know the layout works. Always tricky to use enjambment in a sevenling.
DeleteOh the way a relationship becomes like a grave... I just thought about sorrowful songs and ended up with "the river" by Bruce Springsteen... this is how this makes me feel
ReplyDeleteSorry, friend. However love ends, it always ends badly: death or separation or indifference.
DeleteIt is always those regrets that burden us; love lost because of carelessness or love never won because of not being brave enough.
ReplyDeleteThat first line resonates with me. "Give it time" "they" say... and then a song comes on or something reminds us all to acutely and it's back in some shape or form - nostalgia if we are lucky. I must say, your artwork just intrigues me - you are so very talented.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Margaret. To love another is to accept the possibility that your ideas of forever may not coincide. Best to leave it to fate, then no one is to blame.
DeleteI had a lot of fun painting this mask-like face.
:-)
Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteAn amazing picture as well!
Thank you!
DeleteThe mirroring of love is so clear here - what we take from others we steal from ourselves, what we give is never lost. Some part of us lies buried next to all those interred forever lost relationships.
ReplyDeleteAmen, again, brother.
DeleteThe ache of just wishing those damn pesky feelings could bury themselves is well described here. I remember a break up with a boyfriend and logically knowing this was the best thing, but logic never did soothe a sore heart. I wished for an end as easy as just throwing some handfuls of dirt and walking away, but the only price we can pay for that is time, and even then any time we have left might *still* not be enough to get over it.
ReplyDeletekiller ending ~
ReplyDelete