The Dig

The dig

I excavated in short quick bursts
Gasping for the next breath
Only enough to survive for the next three inches
Knees skinned, hands blistered, heart full

Keep digging

If I could make it, go deep enough, oh Lord
I was sure that my find would fascinate, tempt
Like that first word from a delicate mouth
You made me an island that day with a mere utterance

Hello

My tools were dreadfully inadequate
My patience insufferably thin
My battered fingers, slaves, pulling at buckets full of misplaced hope
I stand in sharp contrast to the man I wish I was

Blinding confidence

You touched my foot that day, calling me from the darkness
“Are you looking for this?”
In your hand, a steel heart scribed with my fallibilities
I stared and you smiled

Oh God

“It is your heart I’m trying to find again.”
I reached for the heart and she pulled it toward her breast
That look, the one decorated with experience and familiarity, soothed
I knew then, I had been digging in the wrong place


Corey Rowley
Copyright 2022

Reviews

[FGFRANKLIN]

I hear the voice of Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Dory saying, "Just keep digging, just keep digging..." Do we ever reach the bedrock of the heart? Can we ever really know or be known? We play hide and seek with intention and expectation, sometimes found, sometimes poster children for milk cartons, missing. Great write, I enjoyed the read. F.

[Ken e Bujold]

you made me an island that day

that line alone is worth the admission to this lovely poem Crowley.

[Lisasview]

Hi Crowley, I found this a rather interesting read... The torment and all she wanted was your heart... your love... seems such a simple thing..but alas it is not.
Never feeling you are worthy..just not good enough...and, yet you actually are..all that digging..and digging
BUT, in the end was she truly worth it...
There are so many wonderful metaphors (my favourite thing) in you wonderful poem.....
Really loved it,
Lisa, now in Spain after a long day...maybe I will have some ice cream?

[Crowley]

Yay, Ice Cream! Thanks for the great review, hope you are well. I will get to Spain one day, its on my list!

[Lisasview]

You are most welcome.
Yes, be sure to come to Spain..when you do you might never go back...that happened to us!!
Lisa, finishing a cup of coffee

[Fabian G. Franklin]

This is wonderful, Crowley, in parts surreal and desperate, in others, touching and sublime. It bears the mark of your genius and that's a brand worth not only keeping but worth sharing with others. Thank you for posting it here for us to read. It's truly a "writer's write" and very much enjoyed. F.

[Crowley]

Thank you Fabian. I recently signed up for a Two Sylvias Press online writers workshop and that was one I wrote while doing that. the workshop was pretty good but too expensive for the same kind of interaction I can get on here for free. The only up sie was I met some wonderful writers and at the end you get to submit one poem to an award winning poet who critiques it. Still waiting to hear on that. thanks again!

[Fabian G. Franklin]

I use too much rhyme to suit the critics. My style is too simple and my verse, too common. I'm so glad I don't write for them. (laughing) But I wish you the best and highly praise this effort, great stuff, my friend.

[Neville]

I don't know what I might have been imagining when I opened the page .. this is so bloody good, I guess I just forgot .. Quite simply brill sir and I aint talkin fish neither .................. Neville :)

[Crowley]

Neville, thank you so much I fell the same about the last one I read of yours. You have a great sense of what flows just beneath the surface.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

sometimes we try to hard to impress when we really are loved for who we are.

and, all she wants is his heart.

j.

[Crowley]

Thank you Jacob, sometimes its a hard thing to hand over as flattened by experience as it can be.

[W. Barrett Munn]

Great construction. Led me through like a thoroughbred around the clubhouse turn, and the whip didn't sting. Another wonderful example of your talent.
Winston

[Crowley]

Thanks Winston, I am very grateful!