20090726

Girl Under Glass

Copyright © 2009 Ernest Bloom.


where are you today,
my sweetheart? how
do you feel? i
miss you. always i
miss you. always i'm
thinking of you.
can you hear me
in there? are you
living behind a
three-story brick wall,
or inside a great big
red party balloon, or
trapped within some
kind of glass sphere
like a free-range
house hamster, a
transparent soap bubble
that you take with you
everywhere you go?
if we had been born
fish out in the ocean
i would have spent
my whole short life
swimming by your
side, and you'd
better believe i'd
be there when you
spawned. don't
ever let us zigzag
apart from each other.
i am tapping on
this barrier that
surrounds you.
can you hear me,
or see me? i'm
very happy to be
your fool -- much
better that than
anyone else's genius.
i hate that i
have almost no hope
of hearing from you
before tuesday.
you leave me alone
out in the empty
desert. the nights
get cold out here
without you.
why do you
do that? won't you
tell me what's
going on inside
your pretty head?
i used to drown
in your eyes,
you know. you
have this way of
leaving me
completely breathless.
i guess
i'll go to bed.
look down and
you'll see that
you're holding my heart
in your hands.

don't drop it.

4 comments:

  1. "Can you hear me or see me?" God, that's heart-breaking & beautiful.

    "Don't drop it." Powerful ending. The speaker sounds so fragile.

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  2. all human beings, no matter how big or strong, are unbelievably fragile, just squishy little wet creatures made mostly of seawater clinginging in an impossibly thin film to the surface of one planet. watched a very big bull 39 yo die in the emergency room the other night despite the team who'd assembled to save his life. his eyes rolled up into his head at the dinner table and several hours later he was dead and gone. and not really too much volume of EtOH after all can slay the most powerful between right now and the dawn. strength is a myth we mutter among ourselves when no man can go up against the lowest benchtop vise -- mr universe is a thin clay vase blaring his air horn at those all around him.

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  3. Holding my heart in your hands- well that's pretty evocative, not to say gross if viewed from a more literal angle. Still, love the 'don't drop it' line. So firm an ending, just like Isca said.

    I like the description of the loved one being behind a barrier(made me instantly think of a bubble given the earlier marine life theme)- the barrier of the ultimate unknown is one possible interpretation.

    It's a very touching and emotional piece.

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  4. it can be an actually bloody, clotty, beating heart, like a frieda kahlo.

    ReplyDelete