Monday, August 29, 2005

caesura

spring fall lurch
together
on a day
that’s neither
but feels like
both

solemn is
hollowness
in the yard
with proud moms
and pops

drunken red
nosed stumbling
around the
children who
slide and run
while uncle
barely can
walk

rain puddles
filled only
yesterday
tiny new
swaddled tight
dreaming what
they heard in
mommas womb
wondering
what is this
dry and new
world so

8 comments:

gulnaz said...

there are some things which feel like the way you describe the day in the first stanza. "that’s neither
but feels like
both"

like the way you have described this day!

Russell Ragsdale said...

Hi Gulnaz! Great to know somebody is looking over my hunched and scribbling shoulders. Reality is really a mess of ambivalence that gets sorted out by our brains. Guess mine is out of sorts today~!

You should see how we celebrate (at 40 days) the birth of a child here. Glad you liked it!!

gulnaz said...

what is about 40 days! there is usually a rite to mark both death and birth after 40 days in most cultures.

Russell Ragsdale said...

Gulnaz, in Kazakhstan the child is not taken from the house nor visited by other than close relatives for the first forty days. The rembrance period for a death is seven days or nine days (depending on religion) followed by the forty day gathering. There are completely different reasons for the two forty day periods.

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

I love uncle can barely walk, its such a nice subtext to lifes celebrations

Russell Ragsdale said...

I agree Sue, some varieties of human behavior are apallingly obtuse!

Lorena said...

you paint a nice picture with your words :)

Russell Ragsdale said...

Glad you liked it Lorena! Another tightly metered poem (as oposed to my usual non metrical, non rhyming free verse). The ride is bumpier this time with the caesura. I found it works well if you place the line, divided by the caesura, in two lines instead of the usual lots of space in the middle of the line.