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Ghosts of years (rhymey edit) (Free verse) by ecargo
She wears the scratchy skirt she seldom wears--
the one for funerals and interviews and other stiff affairs,
and even high-heeled shoes, the pinching kind
that make her limp for days, and watches other ends
unwind from spools of common thread, and tales unfold
like maps laid flat, each well-marked route now stained and old,
showing where these other sojourners had been,
scored with fold-lines and faults of long use, worn and thin.
And if she imagines that in resolution thereâs some
ragged judgment, well, who can blame her? She welcomes
this end, needs the final hangnail tear of separation,
thinly weeping but clean and clearly healing, frustration
almost bloodless, already purged and shouted out,
unlike these many others here, who spurt their hurt in gouts
or drip steadily from injuries inflicted, partings like a briar tangle
of lives entwined, where hope ends trapped and mangled.
But not for her, not for them, whatever âthemâ remains,
most of it long spent, no longer subject to the pain and strains
of extrication, and even anger mostly gone
or mostly going. Theyâve both moved on,
as much as one moves on, with, maybe, a small,
dull throb still left to probe, some phantom limb all
that's left between them, a specter hand of what once was
and now is out of promise.
And in the marble vault, she waits her turn
and in he comes, neat suited as heâd seldom been,
the final end, with roses and a champagne toast
to raise with her in burying their ghosts.
Votes: (green: user, blue: anonymous)
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Arithmetic Mean: 8.666667
Weighted score: 5.9861183
Overall Rank: 1321
Posted: March 27, 2006 12:44 PM PST; Last modified: March 29, 2006 1:34 PM PST
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