The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Mon 3/9/2009)

[RetroLounge]

The Sound That Wakes Me at Night, Thinking of It

Not his wife—sobbing, refusing to get out of bed.
Not his kids, kept home from school, snuffling
or wailing, "I want Daddy," when they're not
poking each other or whining, "He hit me!"
Not little brother, jarred awake at 2 a.m., phlegm-
throating, "Fuckers," thinking it took more than one,
fury his finger-in-the-dike stopping a flood.

Not his mother, rocking, wrapped in her own
arms, her face in the bathroom mirror so twisted
and old it stops her cold, the way she might
have stopped him, if she hadn't popped pills
to sleep and wake and feel better about her life
that always was, she sees now, fabulously good.
No, it's his father, in court, his speech prepared:

the "impact statement" meant to heap years
of hot-coal suffering on the bastard's head,
since judge and jury—those pukes, those bleeding,
heartless ulcers—lacked the stones to squash
a stinkbug. It's Dad, hearing the killer parrot,
"a drug deal gone bad"—that junkie, that syphilitic
gob of tapeworm pus casually adding, as part

of the deal that saved his life, "I popped the kid."
It's Dad, flying over chairs and tables, past
bailiffs and lawyers to reach, somehow,
the killer's throat, his own releasing a sound
between a train grinding to a panic-stop,
and a jet fighter screeching off to bomb Iraq—
sound of a gut-stuck sabertooth before it mauled

Neanderthal—berserker-sound trapped
in suburbia, the one act that could comfort him
choked off by Law, but not the sound
that, even when he's dragged away on national
TV—thrashing, head thrown back, mouth gaped
wide as a bear's—I know he won't stop making,
hour after hour, year after year.

Charles Harper Webb

**************

:hi:

RL

[blueraven95]

1. ...

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

2. ...

I'm confused, but that's okay. I'm going with it.

:hi:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. me too.

oh well,
not the first time
won't be the last :)

Hello RL and Chorophyll :donut: :hi:

[Chorophyll]

4. Hey!

:donut: :hi:

On edit: that donut and coffee is looking pretty good right about now.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. Poetry and Coffee have become a Morning Ritual for me -

thanks to RL :) :hi:

[Chorophyll]

6. Me too.

It's a good ritual. :)

[RetroLounge]

13. Hello!

:hi:

RL

[RetroLounge]

10. Seems to be about a man who was murdered...

One who was a husband, father, a son...

:hi:

RL

[Dora]

7. Oh, god. The loss never ends.

[RetroLounge]

11. ...

:hug:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. My dear Retro...

Oh boy.

This is a tough one...

Blue Monday?

Thank you...

:-(

[RetroLounge]

12. ...

:hi:

RL

[DeepBlueC]

14. wow

that was...visceral and highly visual

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

15. Thanks for posting

Welcome to the poetry threads. Hope to see you more often...

:hi:

RL