Assassinated.

The newspaper blew in a twisting fashion

Stopping only to hug the wall

The words jumped out

Assassinated

The night already black

Such an important man

People wept openly

They arrested a man

Though, he died too

Time went on

Mystery built up through the years

They all had their own theories

Films and documentaries proved one thing

Death was cold in the afternoon

People always say in conversations

What were you doing that day

The newspaper blew in a twisting fashion

Stopping only to hug the wall

The night we said goodbye forever

The words jumped out

Assassinated

Just how I felt.

Reviews

[Kathy Van Kurin]

Paul Bell,
This poem has the feeling of being caught up in someone else's disaster. I was a little confused at first as to meaning so I read your reviews. OK, now it makes more sense. Is it personal or corporate?
We had a national tragedy and simultaneously you as well.
Mourning, processing our loss on a national level as you mourned on a personal inward level. Your soul twisted with pain..."newspaper blew in a twisted fashion, stopping only to hug the wall the night we said goodbye forever. The words jumped out ; Assassinated. Just how I felt.
You did well to process your pain in such a clever way with incredible meaning. Whether both tragedy's could of happened simultaneously is pretty incredible too. I am taken with this writing and felt it difficult to comment about someone else's pain, it being on a two fold level..
Bless you,
Kathy

[Paul Bell]

Thanks Kathy. Sometimes it's hard to convey in a poem. When someone wants to forget. Something monumental makes sure he can't.

[Kathy Van Kurin]

Whoa, that is tricky. I feel for you there. Loss is something which comes but we try to process as best we can. Your poem was just so great.
Kathy

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

"Assassinated"-a man, a generation...Powerful imagery- even the newspaper crumpled and cried "stopping only to hug the wall". Mournful,"people wept openly"-they did. Stark poem of finality- like a gunshot- "Death was cold in the afternoon"- and it was. Years later, it still is. Respect and condolences given eloquently for the Assassination felt across the pond. Tears, again.Great Paul!

[Paul Bell]

Thanks Annette. You recovered yet.

[Annette Pisano-Higley]

Hi Paul, yes recovered my friend:))

[Workvio]

This poem contains the perfect slipperiness of a good mystery, in that it leads the reader in a definite direction in order to allow the reader to jump to a wrong conclusion, close but wrong ... Americans will quickly jump to the conclusion that this piece of your heart penned to page is all about (as a tribute memorial) the day Kennedy was shot, with Ruby killing Oswald shortly thereafter ... And you have cleverly woven a true web of deceit that allows your reader to reach just that true, but wrong, conclusion ... For the last line says it all, if the reader is listening with his heart, instead of simply viewing words with his eyes: "Just how I felt." ... Thus, the last line states openly that this poem feigns a message of JFK, but that facade is only to cloak the pain of personal loss that took place in the life of that person who said, "Just how I felt," perhaps, even coinciding with that exact moment in time & history, though such a conclusion may not be accurate to draw ... Things can happen in this life (most especially where women are concerned) that can render a man's heart slaughtered via assassination--shot through the heart, pierced to the very core of his existence ... Well penned, filled with emotion, and a message all too easily overlooked ...

Marv

[Paul Bell]

Congratulations Marv. You cracked the code.
Sadly JFK was irrelevant in that moment in time.
But surely wouldn't be for the rest of his life.

[Valentine]

I think I know what that feels like. Sad to be the one left behind too. Valentine

[Lyn Anderson]

What is interesting to me about this piece is what jumps out at the reader. The first thought -- was it JFK? Martin Luther King Jr.? One of those seminal moments in history where everyone remembers what they were doing when.

[Paul Bell]

JFK. Though the poem was about a painful break up which he now had to endure for life.

[Lyn Anderson]

Yes, I caught the double meaning. It's very well done and makes the mind leap to one or the other.