ALL I COULD GET

All I could get

Roaming one Thursday with reluctance
Amid the smog and noise
Amid haste immaturity irresponsibility
Amid the rude sound of telephones
Horns blowing people laughing obnoxious
Screaming demanding refusing
Announcements warnings sirens
Amid this confusion which I loathe
Saw I a touching farewell at the ocean

And I wanted the world to be silent
And I wanted to sit and not speak
And I wanted only to breathe
Just to hear the wind blow
And the sound of the water foam grey
As it was greeted in peace by the sand
I only wanted to feel my own heart
Beating ever more slowly inside
And record the farewell in my notebook
For someone to read perhaps
In a hundred years time
For someone to eat perhaps
While the worms did eat me
So I sat on the sand and did not speak
But it was just too damn noisy

And all I could get

Was the shadow-bearded man
With the child on his shoulders
Looking
With binoculars
To the sea

As the red scarf waved
From the crying woman’s hand
While the warship
Sailed away
From the three

A poem from my latest book SPEARMAKER.

Please visit sidneyroberts.com for samples, contact, and purchase information.

copyright 2006 Sidney P. Roberts II
all rights reserved