when the magnolia blooms

when the magnolia blooms

A Poem by m.s.early

One day 
I was at the family cemetery talking
to my great-grandmother like she were still here.
The magnolia made an umbrella canopy 
over the stones
while the breeze came up 
from the west,
the rural music of the leaves 
rustling 
while the dead 
slept.

I looked up.
It was April
so the magnolia was blooming, 
the stones were indifferent 
to its scent in the breeze,
the dead baby 
of seven months old 
didn't stir.

Why should babies die?

At the back of the tree 
are unmarked rocks,
slaves 
dating back to plantation days.

The Sun never shines on their stones.
The Sun never rises for them,
the Sun never sets for them,
but they have the sound of the wind
and the scent of magnolia
blooming in the spring.

© 2014 m.s.early


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Reviews

This brought to me the image of the cemetery my mom and brother are buried in, and really made me think. Great job.

Posted 10 Years Ago


m.s.early

10 Years Ago

Thank you so much Brittany :)
I like how rooted this is in a sense of real, but still with the unearthly feel of the cemetery. But I have to ask: why doesn't the sun shine on the slaves' stones?

Posted 10 Years Ago


m.s.early

10 Years Ago

They're behind the tree, always in the shade
Deep and eerie, you paint a touching scene here, Xavier. On a strange coincidence note: my grandmother is buried in a cemetery called Magnolia Cemetery... and she lost a baby...

Posted 10 Years Ago


Just beautiful :) The wording and imagery are so haunting :)

Posted 10 Years Ago


This is utterly beautiful and moving....Unmarked stones on inknown graves...often haunt us, make us wonder so much...who they were and what life had meant to them..

I often wander in our cemetry too...studying old graves..

So, this is one of my favorites...

Posted 10 Years Ago


Heavy sigh, I have no words to sufficiently describe how affecting this was................

Posted 10 Years Ago


So deep and amazing melancholic view...I love this kind of poems with calm feeling of the death and life. Here is contrast, the beautiful white magnolia, and the stones with dead..But magnolia is breathing life, so dead are not in this graves now. I like the questions which arose from your poem, life and death are always connected, the are just stages, but blooming of magnolia is forever...

::n.nour::

Posted 10 Years Ago


graveyards haunt me...just like this poem does...I have read it many times now...It affects me like a missed baby ....I don't know how to explain it yet ....but it's coming...I will return maybe in April.

Posted 10 Years Ago


m.s.early

10 Years Ago

Thank you Queenie. Your thoughts on this one are endeared :)
This is an incredibly lovely poem. Your words allowed me to see all that you saw, in acute, pin sharp detail.

Such a very good write.

Beccy.

Posted 10 Years Ago


m.s.early

10 Years Ago

Thank you very much Becky. I'm glad it could touch you :)
I love your ability to weave whole characters, believable and true, into a short poem. My dear, I had yet to come across errors in your work until today. I am wondering if you wanted to put was instead of were in the great-grandmother line (like she was still here).

Posted 10 Years Ago


Lyn Anderson

10 Years Ago

Just being polite. Wouldn't want to offend thee:)
m.s.early

10 Years Ago

You couldn't kl. Especially since you're usually right. ;-)
Lyn Anderson

10 Years Ago

Thank you. I try not to say it unless I am pretty sure.

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Added on February 27, 2014
Last Updated on March 1, 2014

Author

m.s.early
m.s.early

VA



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"A poet's work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep." -Salman Rushdie more..

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