Sunday, May 13, 2012

Help me name this poem!!!

I have had this thing written in this, it's final, complete form (which is really saying something for me) for two months now, and I still have not named it!  If you have the time, I'd love for you guys to read it and give me some title ideas.

Part I
The bright yellow swing on the swing set

moves on its own as if

an invisible person is swinging gently upon it.

"Just the wind," I scold myself, and yet,

it seems as though it is teasing me,

playfully beckoning, "Come out!"

But I remain behind the window, behind

my self-made wall. Duty of the self-educated.

Words and worries, sums and stories,

Tick-tock, tick-tock allegory.


Books are closed, I may play.

Placid treetops, wind has died.

Yet yellow swing still sways. "Come out!"

To swing or not to swing,

To breathe and remember the sound of my heart beat.

My fingers drum against the window, dull

dum ba dum ba dum

And I forsake her, thoughtful friend,

for I have growing up to do, you know;

the words and worries, sums and stories.

Tick-tock, tick-tock allegory.


Part II
Clouds like the stretched out cotton balls

that wiped away the princess pink from my little nails.

My imaginary friend must be aging, getting

feeble, for the faded yellow swing creaks

back and forth, inch by shrinking inch.

I taste the tingly promise of the changing seasons,

the words and worries, the sums and stories.

Tick-tock, tick-tock allegory.


But today, today with all the chores and changing

schedules in a fickle whirlwind, with all

the promises I've made myself...

What should I wish to do but swing?

Yes I am ready... but it is gone.

A ghost dances about me elusively. A single

wilted daisy, her forlorn grave marker.

My fingertips kiss the petal strings.

Slight silver crescent of a moon like

a sharp fingernail clipping...

sweet dream escapes are all drowned out

by the words and worries, sums and stories.

Cruel tick-tock, tick-tock allegory.


Part III


Reminiscing pulse. I take

my place on yellow swing once more.

But I'm too solid, she too faint. Her eyes

so sad yet accusing, bore into mine.

"You are gone."

Her voice, like nails on a chalkboard,

chills me. "But I am here!" I protest.

She shakes her head, more and more

dark and distant. "Here

but not returned, you're not.

You'll never be back again."


I wake from my reverie, reality dawning cold.

It's frightening for one so young as I

to be so young no more.

Yet a subtle knowing all along.

Shifting battlegrounds on the

inescapable outcome. I took too easily;

the words and worries, the sums and stories.

Tick-tock, tick-tock allegory.


Part IV
In a haze of sweet honesty, my eyes

like my mother's take in the fresh world.

Mud pies baking in their sun-rock oven, fish dinner

of pinecones roasting on a spit, stick-fashioned

weapons, pole and tarpaulin fort; breathing with

a pure belonging life all their own.

"Hold on." Mother's whisper tickles my ear.

My fingernails imprint my hands around

the ropes of the bright yellow swing.

I sail towards blue, laughing pure laughter.

And the pendulum motion begins.



Oh, and Happy Mum's Day! (;

1 comment:

  1. I don't know what to call that, but that was the best thing I've read in a long time. Great job! The imagery was fantastic, and I like how you keep us guessing what the deal with the swing is, and the reference at the end to childish things we used to do in the yard, like mud pies, Genius!!!

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