Roberta

When she could no longer walk,

she crawled.

When she couldn't crawl anymore,

she found someone to carry her.

 

Swallowing butterflies,

Capturing what couldn't escape from the chamber of his stomach,

Frank kneeled to her.

Slidding a leather hand,

beneath the suffering stamped to the back of her neck.

 

The way she folded into his arms,

as his heart beat against her inner ear.

Her eyes held no light,

nor exsistance of life.

 

"I remember you said,

Sometimes it lasts in love,

but sometimes it hurts instead."

 

He hadn't held her in years,

and now he watched her flee from his arms,

in an etherial burst of anguish.

Frank begged for his affection to be her savior.

 

But no prayer,

could save what had once been.

Sobs gathered,

at the back of Frank's throat,

   

"Sometimes it lasts in love,

but this time it hurt instead."

 

 

Reviews

[Neva Flores - Changeful..]

It is sad when someone has sunk to the depths of no longer being able to feel. Their very soul has been damaged. I have seen a damaged soul looking back at me and found that in time and with great love and patience it can be whole again. Your write brought me to tears.

[Cicera]

I guess I can never resist liking a poem that makes me feel. This poem made me feel like the man and the woman in it. The picture I worked in my mind is of a man and a woman who had a recent repeated fight, or there is something that is not going between these two persons who have something of love that relates one to the other. And I feel the sadness here when the man cannot communicate this to the lover he's carrying in his arms. And she hears the fast beating of his heart in her ears, but her heart beats out far away from that room. Little is left to do when so much has already been done. And one lifetime is very short to save everything.

[Marie Harrison]

Such a sad poem
But it' message is
beautiful too

[Zeitgeist Manifesto]

There was so much tension in this poem. I swear I could see a wall running right between them. The physical touch was almost metaphorical. Amazing writing.

[Chris G. Vaillancourt]

This is a wonderful and poignant poem. I loved it.