Homework 27/7 (for Bob...finally!): Final Moments

[David Campbell]

Final Moments

Her bones, hunched tight against the bed,
are framed in funnelled light that’s bled
through shuttered blinds against a wall,
a silhouette to mark her fall.

The silence doesn’t know her name,
and visitors who never came
to ease those decades of despair
left silent footsteps on the stair.

She gazes at dead memories
when childhood’s lazy fantasies
gave hope of love, a great romance,
a long, slow waltz in life’s sweet dance.

A photograph in black and white
illuminates the darkest night…
her dress of silk, a dazzling smile,
the youth beside her in the aisle.

A flop-haired boy with awkward hands
that fired a gun in distant lands,
and somewhere clutch the dank, cold earth,
with no-one left to mourn his worth.

So loneliness walked by her side
through city streets where people hide
as strangers in the public mind…
invisible, for we are blind.

She paced her days with cups of tea
and soaps that flickered on TV,
while sunlight falling on her face
was all she knew of warmth’s embrace.

The neighbours gossiped near her door,
while shouting children laughed and swore
on landings as they ran and played,
as she, like smoke, began to fade.

They did not see the Reaper’s crime,
the liquid flesh devoured by time,
the gases rupture parchment skin,
the process of decay begin.

Her final moments passed them by,
ignored by all, for those who die
alone, unknown, it seems we say
are just rag dolls to throw away.

David 23/7/15

[Trisha Patterson]

Wow, powerful stuff! As always, you engulf the reader in your depiction.
Trish

[Shelley Hansen]

Oh David, that is an amazing poem - so poignant and sad and masterfully executed, as always. It reminds me of a poem I read as a child, called "A Poor Old Maid". She lived alone, and was dismissed by passersby as having "no life", other than her flower garden. She had once been betrothed, but her fiance had died on their wedding day. The flowers from her garden graced his grave - but no one knew. I just remember these couple of lines ...

She said, "I had a lover once -
his voice has long been stilled.
In the early dawn of our wedding morn
he was thrown from his horse and killed."

I've always remembered it because it taught me a valuable lesson to look below the surface and see the person, not just the appearance or circumstances.

Your poem touches a raw nerve with me at the moment because we have a friend who is a widow and lives alone. Last week she had a stroke and lay on the floor for two days before friends who had called the day before became worried and got a locksmith to break in. Thankfully, she survived and is now recuperating in hospital. What an ordeal! The scary part is - she is not old or frail. She is our age, fit, trim and active. It can happen to anyone!

Cheers, Shelley

[Catherine Lee]

Oh yes indeed David, I totally agree with Shelley and Trisha. There are so many sad stories like this out there and you have captured this so well.

[Irene]

A work of art, David!!
Captures the scene so well, and holds the reader in its grip.

are framed in funnelled light that’s bled
through shuttered blinds against a wall,

- just love the way you have described this!!

[Maureen K Clifford]

Oh I am going to be so hard pressed selecting who gets the poets award for this fortnights work So many poems and such varied content and every one of them good.

Your words capture a life deemed as worthless by many and yet this lady held a great love in her heart for one taken too young. So many stories similar to this I am sure are hidden in the depths of some of our oldies, if people would only take the time to ask the questions they would marvel at the information revealed. Maybe poets are just more insightful - your words David, reveal the magic.

[David Campbell]

Thanks, all, for your kind words. The poem was prompted by the story of Natalie Jean Wood, a Sydney woman whose body wasn't discovered till eight years after she died. You can find it reported at: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/n ... 6089316996

David

[Catherine Lee]

Oh this is so incredibly sad. After reading the newspaper story and then the poem again I feel on the verge of tears. God forbid we should ever be in such a position as to find we've ignored an elderly - or any age for that matter - person's unexplained absence for so long!