Iron In The Soul
I see her rising from sweat-soaked sheets
her face gaunt and drawn.
Each night a rearguard fight to hold the line,
to struggle, push back, reach another dawn,
endure the stinging loss, major defeats
and fast decline.
Then she is making tea and toast,
a single scrambled egg
as others do worn down by months of pain
that fells the strong, compels the rest to beg
a moment free from hearing their own ghost
sing death’s refrain.
Then she is standing in a bus
with not one empty seat.
She clutches at a strap, silently prays
no fragile bones betray her planted feet,
no stop or start create unbalanced fuss
or lurching sways.
Then I am reading and smell her fear
descend like mustard gas.
I brace myself, inhale and numbly stare
at troubling visions of what would come to pass,
of what would be. Images blur then clear;
they birth despair.
Then one faint sound gouges a hole,
a space affording sight.
I hear her final breath, watch how her eyes
behind translucent lids emit a light
that shrinks the ball of iron in my soul
to half its size.
About this poem
This is an elegy for my mother. I wasn’t there when she died, so here in the poem I imagine her last days and weeks. believe the poem is one of consolation, for those who might have or may yet be in that situation, and certainly was consoling for me writing it. It has an a b c b a c rhyme scheme, and a 4 3 5 5 5 2 iambic rhythm.
Written on June 04, 2023
Submitted by Noddy on January 24, 2024
- 1:03 min read
- 49 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | ABCBAC DEFEDF GHIHGI JKLKJL MNONMO |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,093 |
Words | 210 |
Stanzas | 5 |
Stanza Lengths | 6, 6, 6, 6, 6 |
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"Iron In The Soul" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 3 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/180584/iron-in-the-soul>.
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