shame

"confessional"

My forefather looks back at me
As I stare into the mirror
Old days, cutlery and weird dressing sense
all mocks me
I try to look away.

The door's half locked
The door could be half open
Twisting the door knob and banging
against the door could open it up
and make me
stare at the night that watches forbiddingly
cars going by
smarter men crossing the streets
ladies vanity purses worthy of attention.

Nights are not as long as one would like them to be
The sun beats down on the face through unenclosed windows
No amount of cover can create darkness
Mondays are slow, footsteps visible
bright white shoes with gray dust on sides
putting step after step after step
Unceasingly.

Instead of hot coffee,brown powders drip out from coffee machines
white, green and red sauces spill a little
A distant woman laughs
A burly man walks by
Two discuss politics
The clock races for three.

As the sun beats down and relaxes,
buses leave with merry go rounds,
and bike stands get vacant
sometimes a cool night breeze blows through
amidst
I start walking
along cobbled roads
in slow, measured steps
towards home.


© Nothing Personal. March 19, 2011.

Reviews

[Lilly Negoi]

the idea of "could be" - actually very nicely mentioned in
"The door's half locked
The door could be half open"
emphasizes beautifully the title - "shame". this reminds me a little of a story i loved when i was a child, in which an emperor had one eye crying and one eye laughing. maybe one eye looking towards the past and one eye looking towards the future here...
the windows are "unenclosed", not shut, which makes me think about windows which are not meant to be, but still are. things with which we have to cope, although "the sun beats down on the face" through them - maybe precisely because the sun "beats down" instead of shining...
hiding inside unwanted light while wishing for darkness and "walking along cobbled roads" - the awareness of history repeating...

[Magdelena]

What caught my eye was the beginning stanza.. It made me look at this in a different way.. This was done so well, that it held me in a trance. i kept going back to re-read this.. Powerful, images flowing past the eye. Brilliantly done.. Should i add more in saying how much this one touched me?

Clapping here..

Mags xx

[Siddhartha]

and such as always is life...as romantic as the poets make it ultimately boils down to-living one day...at a time...original, thought provoking and one hell of a work...

[Robin]

heavy musings on the path of life . reflective and introspective

[The Analog Kid]

I like the ending stanza. Works well!

[paul]

oh... beautiful. the first stanza !!
remarkable all the way through
'towards home' -beautiful