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The Clamour Of The Silence

entry picture

After the burial of
A neighbourhood child
I opted
To stay in the cemetery
Where lash grasses
And weeds grow wild.
Out of curiosity,
Inscriptions on
Headstones
I began to read.

At  the height of
Her girlhood
To her parents' grief
A lass cut  brief.
I noticed as runs
The adage
“Drinking one's cup
To the last dregs”
Some had passed away
At a full ripe age,
Some had passed
Of natural cause
While Others
From the challenges
Life is sure to pose.

Reading, I went deep
Into the quit wood
As far as I could.

A pregnant woman
Hit by a car
A man shot dead
In a bar!

The clamour of
The  silence
Nudged me
While I still have
The license,
Repentant, my sins
 I have to confess.
Then I heard from light and left
"Had we been in your feet
We wouldn't waste a minute!"
"Your sins get rid of it"
"Do it!"
"Wash it!"
"Before God
You have to stand neat !"
 
"While in full harness
Sins ablution
Is what must come
To your attention!
Don't wait for
Days of retribution!”

Outside, I began my wits
To gather
To make an open breast of
My sins to
My confessing father!

What I felt after staying a bit in a cemetery

◄ A corner

Fourtunately it resussicates ►

Comments

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Alem Hailu G/Kristos

Thu 24th Sep 2015 09:01

I have revised the poem Thank you for the excellent feedback useful for refining it further.

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M.C. Newberry

Wed 23rd Sep 2015 16:00

I identify with the inspiration of these lines. Some time ago, on a successful search to locate the grave of my
late father's first cousin, murdered by Michael Collins' "hit
squad" on the original Bloody Sunday in 1920, I saw an
adjacent grave which told a tragic story which I put into
my poem "A Tombstone Tells Its Tale". Cemeteries have
much to tell us - much, in fact, to teach us - if we take
the time so cruelly taken from their inhabitants of the past.

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raypool

Tue 22nd Sep 2015 20:18

This very much appeals to me as it has a moving simplicity to it and reaches out in a personal sense, maybe in the same way as someone who by luck has been spared some catastrophe and who feels uncomfortable with the others who have passed away.
Interesting concept!

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