Analysis of Lunch is 14 metres away and Rising



In the darkness before a new day
The cowering small towns hunker down, waiting
Fallen trees embrace the landscape
Windmills of leaves swirl and smack at windowpanes
And the clouds chest bump high above with brutal disregard for the bruises falling below
Collapsed road bases roll up like burnt crusts
Outbuildings cling to the earth, screaming tin voices in anguish as their skins peel under the hard grip of the wind
He knew this much; nothing would ever be the same
Bits of people’s lives fly past like hole punches in a pianola roll
The cold fingers of water curl around ankles, ghost hands pulling them down
Countries of memories, precious photographs and leather-bound heirlooms fighting to find higher ground
Stacking, piling high, more stacking, an elevator of loss
Fractured futile attempts, the water still rising
Past, present, and future thrown into a raging internal sea
Scattered around him was his life’s work and his heart clenched, tight and shrivelled in fear
About now, he thought, the bridges and roads will be cut
Like the moment you realise that your whole life until this point is horrifically tidal, rapidly receding, pulling your feet from under you in great surges
Pencils, paints, and crayons rush past.
Small coloured sticks making art as they swirl away or sink, colours muddied on the way down
His brother's well worn Martinez guitar swims past, water music
Desk, his mother’s 1800’s walnut bureau, gasps for breath before bobbing to the surface briefly and then like the titanic, upends
Lightening illuminates a neighbour’s house, bedraggled and huddled jersey cows coats dark with rain, fences like spiderwebs caught in trees, a small yellow lifejacket,
Pitch black again and alone
Civil engineers made roads, drew boundaries, nature casually and with little effort unravels all this precise measuring and inking
Who is going to find me in this he thinks?
Has this one moment defined the rest of every other moment to come?
Gone, lost, without, drowned, the language of heartbreak
Lunch is 14 metres and rising away, the water now chest deep.


Scheme ABCDEFGHIJKLBMNOPQJRDASBTUVW
Poetic Form
Metre 001001011 01001110110 1010101 111101110 001111011100110101001 0111011111 1110110110010111110011101 111110110101 111011111100011 011011010110111011 1011001010010111011101 10101110110011 101001010110 1100101010100101 100111111011110101 0111101001111 101011111101111110100010101111010110 1010111 110110111101111101011 1101101001111010 11101110111011010101001100101 1000100110100101011111101110101101 1101001 10101111100101000011010010110110001 11101110111 1111001011100101011 1101101011 111001001010111
Characters 2,085
Words 349
Sentences 4
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 28
Lines Amount 28
Letters per line (avg) 60
Words per line (avg) 12
Letters per stanza (avg) 1,685
Words per stanza (avg) 344

About this poem

I wrote this poem in response to devastating floods in SE Qld & Northern NSW in Australia over the last three weeks. Thousands of people with everything gone and over 20people dead! A huge disaster for the East coast!

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Written on March 03, 2022

Submitted by J.harvey on March 07, 2022

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:45 min read
41

Jan Harvey

Jan Harvey is an unpublished poet who yearns to bring words to life. She lives in Qld, Australia and is a songwriter, teacher, singer and who write about life and all it's light and shade. more…

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