Avenue
I went to a poetry workshop tonight. I haven’t read aloud since well before Owen died. I thought it might be fun. I can’t actually call it fun now, now that I’ve read aloud again. I can call it a thing whose time has come. So, I will. Tonight, I did a thing whose time has come.
As I promised, there will come a time when I’ll post Owen’s poetry. It’s not that far away now. Not today, though. Posting his words requires my ability to read and reread his journals. Something about Halloween…maybe…we’ll see…spirits have a way of prompting me to act. Nothing too woo-woo here. Just a reality I’ve come to accept as…true.
Tonight’s poem, which I wrote in 2003, maybe 2004, can’t remember, doesn’t matter, seems like such a long time ago now…it was:
Avenue
Be careful, step lightly
on the avenue.
Down those side streets
lies another life, not yours.
Look closely at the signs,
they may be cherries strewn under the tree.
Could be your heart in pieces.
Pick up the leaves that drop at your feet
they may be your sisters,
they may just be leaves.
But you’d hate to find out you left
them behind, in either case.
After all this time
haven’t you found your way back?
Be careful, step lightly
the return trip is full of pebbles, stones,
roadblocks stand firm.
Grab hold of my hand
I’ve been here before.
I know the road, I built it.
Grab hold.
******************
Owen didn’t need smelling salts to arouse his consciousness. Smelling salts, however, release ammonia for just that purpose. I feel sometimes I could use a dose. Snap that little capsule, and maybe I’ll wake up. Maybe not. The bats are circling, they’re awake, it’s nighttime…and I’m too tired to sleep.
Song for the night: Ammonia Avenue, Alan Parsons Project
Okay, this has nothing to do with your poem…probably. But as I read it and reread it, I kept thinking about all the recent rhetoric about Wall Street and Main Street. And the lines, “Down those side streets /
lies another life, not yours” make me ponder how interconnected we really are….
Isn’t it funny how words can take on a meaning of their own, outside of what we intended originally?
Thanks for sharing your work with us!
Just reading this gave me a shiver. I want to hear it aloud also.
(in two weeks)!!