The Vines Inside
“There are vines inside your mother,”
Daddy says, “squeezing as they grow.
Tightening and taking and suffocating
Is all they’ve grown to know.”
“They wrap around her lifelines,”
Daddy says, “cutting off what’s left.
There’s not much there for them to have
For they’ve already taken all the rest.”
I blink my seven-year-old eyes
Startled by daddy’s words.
“How can there be plants in mommy?
Are there also fish and birds?”
Daddy shakes his head and says,
“No, baby, only the vines live inside.
Only for so much longer, though,
For mommy doesn’t have much time.”
“The doctors tell me just a month,”
Daddy says, as he tucks my hair behind my ear.
I swallow down a quiet sob
And wipe away his tears.
About this poem
This poem represents both innocence of a child being introduced to something as horrendous as cancer, and facing the loss of a parent, as well as the strength you can find in children when they’re faced with a parent in a state of vulnerability.
Submitted by carissaconstantini1 on July 24, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 47 sec read
- 58 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | X A X A X X X X X B X B X X A X X X X X |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 754 |
Words | 158 |
Stanzas | 20 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1 |
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"The Vines Inside" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/133883/the-vines-inside>.
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