Do Strawberries Contain the Meaning of Life?
I wanted to
forget how to feel,
unreeling old
celluloid 64 mm
on sheets in
memory
a perfect day
by a stream
this two-year-old
with hair so blond
it disappeared
in the sun
bounced on his
lap
cigarette
hanging from his lips
Brylcreem shine
on curls I would inherit
wind pulled ash
from his face
into tinkling
water
patched lives
can look like anything
even a
strawberry offered on a summer day
copyright/all rights reserved Audrey M. Howitt 2021
Posted to Poets and Storytellers
there is both pain and joy weaved into this poem, and it moves all the way through, the memory is bittersweet, like a strawberry. very well written... very
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, the way you say just enough to convey volumes in the unsaid.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I'm seeing an old photograph described. There is a strawberry somewhere in the shot. An oracle.
ReplyDeleteEach stanza looks and feels like an old Polaroid shot taken on a warm summer's day.
ReplyDeleteExquisite!
Beautifully bittersweet.
ReplyDeleteMy God you are good! It could have easily been me sitting on my dad's lap. Simply beautiful....sweet melancholy!
ReplyDeleteI sense an undertone of something ominous ... and hope I am way off base. Beautifully composed!!!
ReplyDeleteI feel as if I peeked into your treasured family photo album and came across one of your favorite memories captured on film. Beautifully penned.
ReplyDeleteThere is so much longing in this one. I can practically see the speaker, staring at a fresh strawberry... While reliving long ago memories.
ReplyDeleteNostalgia always carries at least a teensy (sometimes a giant) ache, and this poem does a wonderful job at letting people discover and feel it too, in all its bittersweet glory.
ReplyDeleteThis is filled with nostalgia and angst. Hope you are well Audrey. Take care!
ReplyDelete