Missing Digits

Sequel to Distance. This tells the story of the other half of the melancholy couple during the 1940s. The two poems are linked at the beginning and end.

I have yet to see

In my young life

A sight more woeful

Than that of lovers apart

 

As he leaves her

Quivering on the station platform

Only a feeble wave he musters

As his better half shrinks to nothing

 

Head against the chilling pane,

The veiled mountains racing

For an unseen prize

Mist billowing like her wedding dress

 

He meets Jacob, engagement ring on hand

Eighteen and saucer-eyed

An anxious girl of his own

Waiting

 

Off the train, the march begins

The uniform souls jest

Laughing shadows of the officers

Naïve energy so limitless

 

Weeks

Harsh storms choke the cheer

Stone faces molded by wind

Hide hopeful sparks inside

 

Boys, free thinkers no longer

The uniforms have bled inward, homogenizing

Hearts tethered together by arteries

Minds by nerves

 

The hive mind wanders to lazy summer fields

Not scarred by the tanks that hunt them

To lovers in masquerade gowns

Faces etched in the looming clouds

 

Shambled buildings groan a greeting

The town, liberated only physically

Women, girls offering themselves for food

Men, boys long snatched by both factions

 

Leaving the wailing spirits, the fates release their rage

Buildings eviscerated, cries of the wounded

The clouds belch out their steel hailstorm

Mortars

 

Shrapnel severs tendons, motivation

The hive mind shrieks in death, its constituents bewildered

He is free to think, but reason has abandoned him

“Run, beloved.” Her voice, urgent but calm

 

The poundings melt into harmony

The mortars, the feet, the heart, the head

The airborne earth bites at his eyes, shielding his soul

From the agony wails melding with shrieking metal

 

A crater yanks his footing, the falling embrace

Onto a body, barley human, barely-

 

Jacob

 

Hot saline tears outcompete the dust, vision returns

Jacob, saucer-eyed again, gaze uninterested

In the entrails occupying the absent legs

Ring grasped to the heart, preserving the love

 

The ring pocketed, a duty understood

The crater spits him out full stride, optimal focus

Muzzle flashes to the east, the mortar team

Rage shoves out reason and elicits the sprint

 

The bomb thrown, him chasing down its drunken arc

The shout, the explosive din, the misfired mortar

Vengeful pieces stealing his index, his pinkie

Adrenaline diverts his attention to kill-

 

The boy

 

The sole spirit of the bomb’s aftermath

A uniform of another allegiance

Yet he stares at him

Saucer-eyed

 

His morality screams to disarm himself

Gun pointed at the child’s breast

Teeth grinding from the pain of the internal battle

Her voice again. “Don’t, dear.”

 

Her image shattered by a crack

The boy slumps, his fearful mind

Now married with the surrounding earth

The crippled hive mind has returned

 

They stumble back, no longer one

A mere shell of the joking faces before

Or even of the hardened faces of determination

Automatons drifting in search of the base

 

Leave is granted, the train returns

The window pane no longer chilling, almost a friend

The saucer eyes gone

Either lifeless or corrupted by indifference

 

Warm, fleshy hands shake his, a hero’s welcome

Ring in maimed hand, he wobbles to the wiry maiden

Gaze locked on the train’s door, windows

Jacob’s familiar face

 

A taxi home, the smooth leather seat foreign to his scars

The driver barks of his days in the service

Yet his mind, detached from the surroundings

Revolves around his nostalgic universe, her

 

The front door looms

Has she forgotten him? Was the strain too great?

His fears flash by, teeth gnashing at his timid spirit

Holed up, waiting for mental aid

 

But then

 

Hope

 

Arrives

 

He is standing in the doorway

Limp apparent

A disheveled shell himself

Worn past existence

 

Slowly the casket cracks, shatters

Her soul leaps though her eyes

Illuminating them with tears

As it flings her into his arms

 

His broad hands with missing digits

Envelop her, probe her

Her back, neck, hair, eyes

So worn from worry

 

Two bodies tremble in harmony

Each the other’s anchor

As the world slows, stops

Melts and fades

 

Color cascades out of the entwining

And floods the room with spirit

Life restored to barren furniture

That gratefully welcomes him home

 

She looks up into the soft eyes

Their fragility consuming his scars

Her own eyes rest with resolution

At his soft whispered song

 

“Never again”

Author's Note

Feel free to critique, my writing style is a little raw.

Reviews

[Red Brick Keshner]

Raw is mostly good. Without that rawness, the material is of little worth.

[Kimberly Smith]

As he leaves her

Quivering on the station platform

Only a feeble wave he musters

As his better half shrinks to nothing

LOVE IT!!!