Paralysis
A row of tidy houses knocks at the windows.
A dull drum dum-dums in the back of my mind.
My bed is soft and comforting;
I let the visitors go unmet.
A cookie tin is abandoned by the door--
Dusty crumpets saved from British tea.
The chimes resonate once they're gone.
I wonder for whom they're singing.
Carolers are in the alley,
Leafing through the trash for naughty nuggets.
Newspaper balls are congealed unreadable,
Tied to string they decorate an evergreen.
My answering machine yawns hello.
Don't tell it how you are; no one's listening.
I'm playing chess with Lazarus
And baking brownies in the basement.
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Submitted on May 01, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 33 sec read
- 4 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XXAX XBXA BXXX XAXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 594 |
Words | 106 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"Paralysis" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 31 Oct. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/81466/paralysis>.
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