What
I Meant to Say
you didn’t let me finish what t meant to say was left unsaid
further discussion impossible since words are
only words
and we could not agree on their meanings your words
like getting “it” off your chest emptying
the dust bin snaps and
snails
fell from your lips like the tar baby i said nothing
you spoke a foreign
language of a world i did not know someone had fallen from the train
like humpty dumpty the world that was could not be put together
again
there was no end to your grievances you dug up things
from the cemetery of life you kept digging all the way to china
words i did not recognize your words a surprise to me i miss you most of all
November 17, 2017
What I Meant to Say II
it is said this winter will be
warmer and dry no rain to speak of
no snow to delight perhaps it will be
better for the animals burr not
too cold
still cold enough for a
shiver hard to find like bear
will words hibernate have
they
migrated south the morning quiet i will miss
the silence of the snow pull
books from the shelf with my
finger
find the words wake them ask them out to play
try to find the words that say what
i meant to say
2 comments:
I can feel the shock in the power of words that rewrote history, in the first poem, and enjoyed the musings about winter in the second.
I like this a lot. In this, "your" words block "my" words making "me" mute as "there was no end to your grievances you dug up things
from the cemetery of life" ... and yet "i miss you most of all" and even afterwords, still trying to find the words: "pull books from the shelf ... try to find the words that say what i meant to say"
The need still to find the right words even after the person is gone. I like the structure too, for me I read in the spacing the hesitancy of the words not coming out. The poem evoked a myriad of feelings and I could see both characters very clearly.
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