"Some things are more precious because they don't last long" - Oscar Wilde

Us – September Free Choice

 

 

Silence was my greatest fear.

After all these years I’ve found us:

our family, born out of poverty and pain

moving between houses not homes.

 

— Perhaps just out of habit

— Perhaps just out of pain

I’m unable to feel concerned for those

Who share not my family name.

 

I could not call my wondering thoughts to settle

For I only thought about the warmth

of those whom I loved in the room next to me.

 

I could only think of their heaving breaths,

Grateful that they could still be heard.

Silence was my greatest fear.

 

I entered the room, unable to calm my restless mind

And sat beside my wife Evelyn – looking at the cradle.

She smiled and gave me a kiss; her lips were made of ivory and gold.

And nothing was greater than when I was between her two arms,

hugging her and telling her sorry for not coming sooner.

 

Getting up, I walked towards the cradle to my Grace –

My beautiful daughter. Her large, innocent eyes would

Be waiting to greet me, and I would do anything to make her laugh.

Silence was my greatest fear.

 

Lifting her, she didn’t move. Why didn’t she move.

Her eyes were not opening like they usually do.

 

She didn’t hold on to my finger or laugh when I tried making

Her smile or cry when I would get mad or try grabbing my face

With her two hands or fall asleep in my arms on those nights

When I would come back from the war and she would be the

Only thing I looked forward to seeing cause somehow she

Would take all that pain away. But she didn’t move.

Silence was my greatest fear.

 

I looked back at Evelyn, but she just looked at me

lifelessly. Tears started filling my eyes, as I saw their

Bodies wither away. They were never there.

It was too late. It couldn’t be.

I ran out of time. I couldn’t have.

There was silence, everywhere.

Silence is my greatest fear.

 

 

 

Poem Explication:

This poem was much more of a narrative than the previous ones I have written. It’s a new style which I thought would be cool to try out. The man in the poem is unnamed, and he was a soldier in an army for his country. He had a newborn child, Grace, and his wife Evelyn – who were both his life. After coming back every once in a while, he would come to meet his family. However, in my interpretation his family whom he would come back too never existed; he had crafted this ideal family, to cope with the fact that he had no one. Silence was his greatest fear.

 

 

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