Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Couple, Not Odd
he: kind, a gentle man
and gentleman,
a ready smile for children,
as if they alone
could grasp the life behind
blood-shot eyes
of unshed tears.
she: determined,
ambitious but in a time
that wouldn’t do
for a woman so
she moved
in other ways
other circles.
he: rooted
to companions
in bars, watered
by rock-and-rye.
she: rooted
to a place, an idea
of place, the same place
for fourscore and six.
Gentleness matched
determination. So they
lived, simply, if
sometimes quarrelsome.
he: missed her
passionately
when he died.
she: mourned
him until she died,
passionately.
This poem is submitted for One Stop Poetry’s One Shot Wednesday. To see other submitted poems, please visit One Stop Poetry. The links will be live at 4 p.m. Central time today.
Photograph: Couple, by Bobby Mikul via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.
Oh, wow! Just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteMy oh my...thanks
ReplyDeleteOh Glynn ..how many truths here in this piece...lives lived together taking separate directions...very well done..bkm
ReplyDeleteA short story in poetry. Together and apart... but then the reunion.
ReplyDeleteI had to go back and read the end of this over and over. Chills stood up on my arms. This is quite a profound piece.
ReplyDeleteThis is so tender Glynn. I find I'd like to know them better.
ReplyDeleteSuch a story you told with that poem...thanks!
ReplyDeletevery tender...I feel like I can put some faces to that elderly couple.
ReplyDeletethis is a beautiful piece glynn...the contrasting last statements say much...i hope to die passioantely...
ReplyDelete"'til death do us part ..."
ReplyDeleteThe couple dynamic well and truly explored in the details of each partner, their quirks, the distance and the closeness. (For some reason I'm thinking of swans and how they mate for life...)Seamless piece.
ReplyDeleteI love the back and forth; the easy and deliberate structure. There is enough to move the poem and no so much as to be overly leading. Very nice OSW
ReplyDeleteOh how often I've seen that dynamic. You captured it well, Glynn. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMore life than death is good.
ReplyDeletethey were married in the late nineteen forties, in september.
ReplyDeleteGlynn,
ReplyDeleteI love how your poetry gives. I feel like I have received something so special when I read your words. Thank you.
My wife and I always notice the "old couples"(of which we are becoming)when we go out to eat...we can tell the ones that sit together separately... The ones that say nothing and we turn and work on our conversation again.
ReplyDeleteThis is a piece that gives like Laura said. A clarion call to take stacok of our marriages.
Take stock I meant...dislexic fingers.
ReplyDeleteopposites often attract - i like how you look at this relationship from different angles - nice one glynn
ReplyDeleteSo much of their life story told in so few lines. Well done, Glynn!
ReplyDeleteCreative and very moving. Much enjoyed!
ReplyDeleteLoving, solid work.
ReplyDelete