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Monument (Free verse) by geewhiz1962
Build me a tower, A tomb of gold. I need to be remembered, I am getting so old. Does granite not age? Is a pyramid to massive? Times going by, can't afford to be passive. Ashes to ashes and dust to dust. Will iron last forever? Forget it, it will rust. Maybe a mountain, could I afford the cost? In 10 thousand years, will my memory be lost? I drive past the grave sites and admire the markers. The Jones, the Smiths, the Chastains, the Parkers. I fully understand that the living need to remember. For years they drop flowers from January to December. But sooner or later the stone starts to fade. The writing is gone, the flowers not laid. Incinerate me and remember the times that I had. Throw my ashes in the river and don't be sad.

Up the ladder: A Dream, A Bad One
Down the ladder: Long Journey

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Arithmetic Mean: 4.75
Weighted score: 4.970199
Overall Rank: 8410
Posted: July 25, 2003 5:06 PM PDT; Last modified: July 25, 2003 5:06 PM PDT
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Comments:
[5] http://mulberryfairy @ 216.195.146.29 | 26-Jul-03/7:37 PM | Reply
"I fully understand that the living need to remember."
What do they need to remember and why? Of course you'll be forgotten in 10,000 years, I suggest you deal with your existential angst, rather than try to ensure that people remember you, graveyards are a waste of space. Of course, these comments are directed toward the "narrator", not the author.
[n/a] geewhiz1962 @ 64.24.228.67 > http://mulberryfairy | 27-Jul-03/9:16 AM | Reply
Of course graveyards are a waste.
I am dealing with someones death and the decision they made to erect an expensive marker.
It seems like such a waste to me. Throw my ashes into the stream and hopefully they will nourish new life
somewhere downstream.
[5] http://mulberryfairy @ 24.97.224.6 > geewhiz1962 | 27-Jul-03/12:47 PM | Reply
Glad I directed my comments at the narrator, then. I'm working on a poem that tells an amusing true story about an ashes ceremony I was recently invited to witness, see below. Read it in reverse order so it will follow the timeline in a linear fashion, I was trying to make the occassion a mystery and put the poem in reverse order but it didn't work.

Ashes to Ashes

The air smelled of moistened trees, buckshot, and latex
as the crowd walked gingerly back toward the camp,
some ran to avoid further soaking by the rain, or to put the ordeal behind them.

The six rifled gunmen had ultimately been successful,
after multiple failed attempts to get the balloons off the ground, the impatient crowd instructed
“Shoot the bottom one first, it’s heaviest!” while glaring at a too-heavy string of red and white balloons
but the rain came down steadily through the lush maple and birch leaves.
The gunmen had been forced to wait longer than they’d hoped,
each time they aimed, the pedestrians cried out “More are still coming,” “Old people can’t walk so fast!”

Irritation had been rising throughout the trek to the abandoned, overgrown cemetery of the 1800’s
The cemetery belonged to the same church whose foundation we passed along the way
the walls burnt down after the last of the smallpox victims had died,
now its basement’s stone walls stood moss covered, defiantly and proudly intact.
Maybe Industry was on the map back then,
a farming community, not this cluster of unfinished hunting camps with black tarp insufficiently covering leaning plywood structures.

The helium tank had detonated one after another balloon,
startling ashes off cigarettes that hung loosely from observers’ mouths.
Dust gathered on the designated inflators’ socks and shoelaces,
The bangs had drawn a sweaty crowd of spectators around the corner of the house to watch.
They were hastily instructed to scatter the dust around and
particles were thrown around in the bushes and trees, over the house
loam came trickling down the roof, spattering into trays of deviled eggs on the picnic table.

Frank’s finest day,
His plan of a 21 gun salute for family to see off the ashes of his radiated body
into the depths of his beloved hunting camp
a plan a trickster like Frank would appreciate,
his last laugh.

[n/a] DurtKL @ 68.75.20.183 > http://mulberryfairy | 27-Jul-03/12:57 PM | Reply
i like this work in progress
your style is very prosy
i like it
did the helium tank really explode? lol
only prob i really have is
"the bangs had drawn a sweaty crowd of spectators....."
it seems too laid back and chill for seomthing that is
thrilling and exciting and crazy.
i hope to see the finished work
[n/a] DurtKL @ 68.75.20.183 > DurtKL | 27-Jul-03/12:58 PM | Reply
ok totally ingronre the comment above
i'm retarded
lol
Im FUCKING retarded
[5] http://mulberryfairy @ 24.97.224.6 > DurtKL | 27-Jul-03/2:22 PM | Reply
Why, you're still mad at me? Yeah, the helium balloons totally exploded all over the place, and the dead man's daughter, who was blowing up the balloons, got a tooth stuck in her shoe, which was actually probably a sign that there is a god because he only had about 3 or 4 cavity filled teeth left when he died.
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