I wanted to keep you
swear I did
but I was only
a little kid
felt you growing
scared as hell
when I did it
I meant well
didn't expect
you'd visit my dreams
no idea
what all this means
I'm sorry I hurt you
I thought you were asleep
dying with this secret
I must keep
© Tia L. Clarke 2008
1 comment:
Initially I concluded that "Untold" was about incest. My new conclusion is that it is about abortion. Is it possibly about both?
Why, this reader is left to wonder, was terminating this pregnancy necessary? A child, it seems, is having a child, but who for?
I must say this poem is rich and intricate, quite well made.
The double entendre, I notice, is central to how your poems are crafted, how they are structured. Your use of this device is quite effective. Meaning and references in your poems, fall like a fruit sliced open, on or to, both sides of the blade.
Who, the poem leaves you wondering, was as scared as hell? The interesting relationship between "dying" and "sleeping;" and the literal dying coupled with the figurative dying, indicate craft and skill with language.
The constant ambiguity creates an unceasing shimmering or a constant fluttering of wings. Like the chicken on a limb in a tree in the dark, falling off its perch and flapping its wings, as well as squawking.
Your poems have a similar tremor and are similarly troubled as well as troubling.
You do know well how to haunt and how to mystify. This is admirable.
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