Room

Her presence follows him...

It scares me sometimes,
The fact that these rooms are filled with your presence-
Your very essence permeates the walls.

The places you’ve been have a charge, a literal charge
(I can feel it raising the hair on my arms)

I know the person I am with you,
And the person I really am are incongruous-
I wonder if, in these rooms you’ve filled, if the two will meet...

Will my schizophrenic manifestations greet one another?
(meet and mellow, the best of both worlds)

Or will there be a struggle?
This violence that seeps out from within,
To leave myself and mix with your essence.

The creature created here, which form will it take?
(This juxtaposition of me and you)

Will my bitterness overpower your sweetness-
Guiding and controlling this thing we have made?
Or will your goodness win out?

I had to get away, to find out...
(my mine filled with paranoid fantasies)

I thought you could see me,
Could follow me around, to keep tabs on me-
Reducing me to a folder in a file.

How many others are there?
(How many others have there been?)

I left, though, and I’ve found-
You’ve saturated me with your presence,
Flowing around me and into me, sinking into my skin.

I’m no longer scared you’re here-
(I’m afraid you’ll leave me.)

It’s as though your presence has followed me around-
Affecting all I do, all I attempt-
Adding your shade to the pastel.

I know you’ve set me on fire-
(Am I another fire? Or am I kindling for yours?)

Will you destroy me in this fire?
Will I be a layman, touching your fire and getting burned?
Or will my fire join yours?

Author's Note

This poem probably has the most complex structure I�ve ever written - and it may in fact be the longest poem I�ve written, I haven�t couned the lines to compare it with the others. Some of the imagery in the poem is literally true - I sat in a chair the person had sat in and there was some rediculous amount of static electricity built up - I did my homework three nights in a row in that chair and I think there�s still some latent charge in it - it was absolutely rediculous! The last 3 stanzas were originally going to be a different poem, or a letter to a person, actually, but... they fit here. I have a whole line of logic that I summed up in those seven lines, I hope it came through like I wanted it to. I know the title for this one�s crap, too, but... I can�t title anything, LOL :P

Reviews

[Nana Carmine]

Wow- this was really interesting. It really took me and held me the entire time- and I really like the way it flows together. I really like the line at the beginning -

' The fact that these rooms are filled with your presence-
Your very essence permeates the walls.'

For some reason it really stuck with me.
Thank you so much for sharing. Your writing really is very good.

~Nana Carmine