Stay
after the season finale
after the chorus fades
when the chill
has sucked the blossoms
on the
over achieving tree
dry as my lips,
when the night's scent of
resin and natron begins
its last encroachment,
wrapping over the nimbus-eye,
stumping closer on crumpled
feet.
Stay
till leaving is no longer
something we control.
~April 2013
55 hieroglyphs for the g-man
Image: Placid Death, (Detail of the Guanajuato mummies, Mexico. Black and white version. Photo taken at Museo de las Momias de Guanajuato)
By Tomas Castelazo (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
A great eerie feeling to this.
ReplyDeleteCool. I like the picture with it as well. I'm always keen on the dark side of things.
ReplyDeleteYou have such a way with words. This is beautiful, not morbid at all (imho) and the ending is perfect, it's nothing we can control.
ReplyDeleteI didn't have to Google anything today Hedge...
ReplyDeleteThanks to the History Channel!!
Your pic...Your story...Picture Perfect.
Loved your 12th Dynasty 55
What a great idea. Thanks for always adding that special touch of class, and have a Kick Ass Week-End
The bog people are so amazing! and you managed to bring it alive- thanks.
ReplyDeleteTotally creeped me out. Very well done!
ReplyDeleteThis is so resonant: the image of dessicated blossoms, the whiff of natron and the until death us do part finality of the conclusion has left me feeling quite unsettled.
ReplyDeleteAh. This an intensely sad poem for me so beautifully depicting (for me) the feelings I've had when a beloved person has been dying. K.
ReplyDeleteSo sad and haunting, hedgewitch...and the last lines? They tore out my heart! (But I'm okay, I'll recover once I wipe my eyes and blow my nose!) :)
ReplyDeleteIt's a good day when I learn a new word. Natron was the word for today. But stumping closer on crumpled feet was pretty perfect as well.
ReplyDeleteIt is a fine line between when to stay and when to go. Haunting piece.
ReplyDeleteFlash 55 - Visual Vexations
G Man is ahead of me, cos I had to look up both natron and nimbus. Now that I have, I really like your combination "nimbus-eye".
ReplyDeleteI read this this morning, and now have read it at least five times more, and I am still not certain that this is not a comment on fame. I'm probably wrong, but it's that opening, about a season finale and a chorus, not to mention the "over achieving tree".
As noted, I looked up nimbus, and it is a sort of halo used by deities when they are on the earth. Celebrities could be said to be our trashy modern "gods". To me, that fits perfectly with the idea of staying until staying is no longer optional. People famous enough for long enough, even if it is just those who are famous for being famous, reach a tipping point at which they can't ever blend in again. The use of the bog mummy gives--IF I am right--your opinion on the worth and vibrancy of such folk.
Then again, perhaps you are only talking about aging, but the fame thing is how I read it. Well written and thought-provoking stuff.
PS--I never read the other comments until I have made my own, but I have to say I'm affected by Karen's comment.
ReplyDeleteThis is wonderful write. It does seem rather tranquil.
ReplyDeleteI read this as one speaking to one's self as age lengthens. I read it also, as one talking to a lover, an aged lover, as this rings with time-has-passed. I read it as something between a plea and a command; a sincere asking with assurance that one will do the very best one can to pull it off. this is a new favorite of ours for me. It is flawless in- form, rhythm, and uninhibited content.
ReplyDeleteThis is spellbinding... the last two lines, stunning ...
ReplyDelete