Spent

Just the other day I thought about dVerse community and how long it has been since I wrote a poem. It feels like waves crashed over me and kept me under water, barely letting me break the surface in time for another inhale. Maybe this old thing I revisited today might push me in the right derection.

Edward Atkinson Hornel - Portrait of an Old Man in a Scarlet Tunic 1881

Edward Atkinson Hornel – Portrait of an Old Man in a Scarlet Tunic, 1881.

Autumn is crashing his bones,
his heart a silent drummer.
Oh, how it drummed so loud
in his waisted summer.

He longs to cry once more,
but it seems his tears
have been used up
in his wasted years.

His hands have been broken
in one too many strife;
he crossed too many lines
in his wasted life.

If only he could feel
just for a moment, whole;
but there is no return
for his wasted soul.

The roots cruelly transformed
To the ties that bind.
It seems the run is over
for his wasted mind.

My offer for today is an old thing I wrote few years ago…I was watching a wrestling match on TV and it made me think about the lives of pro-wrestlers, of the risks they take from day to day…from town to town…to earn few bucks here and there. How dark is their autumn and how cold is their winter?

17 thoughts on “Spent

  1. Tough life but I like the refrain of the word “wasted” in each quatrain. Autumn and winter are the toughest seasons for me but it is also a time for reflection and planning ahead. Thanks for joining us at dVerse.

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  2. I almost wish you hadn’t written the backstory about the wrestlers being inspiration. I was had already grown so ready to attribute your lamentations of the old man depicted in the photo.. Brilliantly written tho’ no matter what I think!

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  3. Like Violet, I was thinking of the man in the painting. I wonder if the wrestlers would think their lives wasted. But the autumn and wasting away part makes me think of my mom, who is 97, and has recently fallen several times–well, she’s past autumn, but. . .

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