Carousel

Recently, someone I knew decided to end his life due to old age, illness, and loneliness. This poem is a reflection on how people could live on no matter what if they had love in their life.

Dust settles on memories

That sit around the house

Like old people in old armchairs.

Each morning an ancient

Habit swings the sun

(A naked light bulb)

Up in the sky.

Once a harbinger of hope,

It is now an unrelenting eye,

Searing, burning away dry,

Paper-thin skin,

Hoping for a pearl of wisdom

Mirroring its own dazzling light

Finding but a jagged

Stone of experience

Wrapped in dying flesh.

Like dripping water that

Bores into rock over a millennia,

A thousand sighs trace the

Silhouette of a lovely face and

Carve it in the red marble of a

Hardened heart.

The trembling, senile hands of a

Dying clock tick forward,

Pause and refuse to trudge on.

The future is a carousel of the

Same twelve plastic horses

Galloping around, and

It’s no fun riding on alone.

Reviews

[Seriana]

Awe, this is sad, nostalgic, and lovely all at the same time. For without the time (even in loneliness) these things would not have existed. I absolutely love the way your phrase things. Just the right amount of decoration to add to your meaning, simply stated and sometimes with a punch. Great write!

[Laz K.]

I truly appreciate your insightful comments!

[Chris Shaw]

The carousel is the clock. Turning constantly through time. I can't think of anything worse than being old, frail and without companionship. I'd want to jump off too. Superbly written Laz.

Chris

[Laz K.]

Thank you. Your feedback is much appreciated.

[Lorry]

When the scenery remains the same, it can become cloying, shrinking the world until there is only the room we find ourselves in and before long we realise that prisons don't all have bars, locks and fencing, leaving us voiceless in a world without ears. If only this tale were fictional, or even unique in its tragic end that could come to us all so easily.

[Laz K.]

True.
Thanks for reading and commenting.

[Coyote Poetry]

Life can feel like a carousel sometimes.
"The future is a carousel of the
Same twelve plastic horses
Galloping around, and
It’s no fun riding on alone"
The above lines are solid. I agree. A lonely life riding the carousel alone. Thank you Laz for sharing the amazing poetry and your thoughts.
Coyote

[Laz K.]

Thank you for stopping by!
I appreciate it very much! :)

[Coyote Poetry]

I enjoyed this poem my friend and your are welcome.

[Dave Brown]

I am never quite sure of your deeper intent, but this has me looking at the final days of an elderly person as they inexorably fade away

[Laz K.]

You're exposing my scheme which is to wrap things up and hide their ugliness behind words that seem to make sense. My cover is blown! :)

But, you got it: it's about the end of...anything, and the approach of inevitability.

Thank you for taking the time to read and to comment.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"Without love, where would you be now?"--Doobie Brothers

Loneliness is a killer and it can easily get us to that point of no return.
this poem speaks such truth.
j.

[Laz K.]

Thank you, j, for reading and commenting.
You're right, of course, about loneliness - and it may affect people at any age.

[Delmar Cooper]

The image of the carousel is presented as remarkably like the image of the snake endlessly eating its own tail. This image, the ouroboros, is ancient and has been used as a symbol of renewal and fertility. Here it seems to be taken as symbolic of futility and sterility. The poem has a sense of loss and loneliness where all those tropes of hope have been turned upside down and inside out.

[Laz K.]

Thabk you for your very perceptive review.
You're right about the snake biting its own tail. It can be a symbol of renewal, cycles, infinity, etc. As always, perception is everything. For some every new day is full of hope, for others it's a dull repetition.
Thanks again.