Weeping at the Side of a Pond

[carose59]

Weeping at the Side of a Pond


This won't kill you, the wind screams,
       knocking you to the ground.

This won't kill you,
             as you fall so hard
                you vibrate with the impact.

                You'll get up again,
                     the wind promises,
        driving you down,
                your head thumping the frozen earth
                again
            and again

         Again, again.

         Again


            and


                again.

                You can stand up again,
                     the wind says.
Just as soon as I stop hitting you.

And even as it's happening,
                you're struggling against it.
Being down is the same as being dead;
  accepting it, you become part of the wind
                stop being part of yourself.


I won't break, you tell yourself, and it's true.
I won't bend,  you tell yourself

           but you do.

Slammed down, face in the dirt, over and over.
The pain means nothing because it didn't kill you.

That's just how the wind is.


I'm not a willow.

                        I'm tired--
                            tired of the wind,
                            tired of dirt in my face.

     I don't know why I keep struggling.
     I don't know why I get up again.
     I don't know anything,                    except
when I feel that foot against my chest,
     I have to fight back.
     I can't just lie there.
     I can't let them kill me.

The willow never wonders,
The willow doesn't know it's fighting the wind--

                                        doesn't care.

The willow doesn't even know it's fighting.

But we fight back for the same reason,
though the willow never truly weeps over it.

That's just a name some woman
(going crazy)
gave to a tree she saw living her life.

Comments

[melodyclark.livejournal.com]

I really liked the w2hole concept behind this, and the technique (especially the patterned cadences resembling the wind and the struggle).

[carose59.livejournal.com]

Thank you very much. I really appreciate that.