7

alt title: "barley living room"

7.

 

i promise to never let you slip between sofa cushions

 

i promise even if you are ghostly thin and as slippery 

as an eel - even if the only thing you want in the whole

world is to disappear there, building huts out of down

out of lose quarters out of dimes, cooking up dust bunnies

when it’s mid-afternoon and you’re finally hungry enough to

 

if it were up to you, you would never leave this room

i won’t let you disappear, not here, not here.

 

Author's Note

8

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Reviews

[M. L. F.]

I love this. I love personification also and you did such a great job here of telling us something much deeper with the personification use here. Clever... ;)

[Barbara Walker]

Love the imagery, Cole! Outstanding.

[Samantha Lynn]

I liked this because being someone who struggles with panic, anxiety, depression, etc. This is what i wish others would say to me when I struggle to get out of bed in the morning, every morning. Now, I don't know if that is the hidden life behind this poem, because I don't really know you, but that is what I felt when I read this. I felt happy, because it is all the words I wish people would say more often.

[TheRaven]

Opening line and I knew I'd like this. The image of lost pictures, toys, memories lost between the couch cushions is a strong opener. You can read this as love of many different kinds. Love for a lover, love for a friend, love for a family member, or perhaps love of oneself. A silent promise in the back of your own head, when you're facing depression and hardships; you promise yourself not to let yourself fade. I tend to read this as love for someone else, it doesn't matter who. But, I can see that person in the throes of hardship and depression. They don't want to move. They don't know what to do, how to do it, can't figure out there own life in the mess of chaos inside their heads. "Hungry enough to..." eat. God, I can relate with that phrase there. Only moving to eat when the body deems it necessary, just having a hard time moving and doing things joyfully. They need help, they need someone. And you're there to make sure they don't disappear. Well done.

[Justine Johnston]

This was absolutely beautiful.I love the imagery you created in this line:

"building huts out of down
out of loose quarters out of dimes, cooking up dust bunnies
when it's mid-afternoon and you're finally hungry enough to"

You really painted a picture with the use of loose change and couch cushion.
I loved it.

I also really admired the last stanza:

"if it were up to you, you would never leave this room
I won't let you disappear, not here, not here."

Falling into spells where you don't want to get out of bed, or your partner suffers from the same ailment- that last line "not here, not here". it gives me this tinge of hope.

[Dayran]

Its wonderful to find someone you want to stay with forever. It makes for a rare find.

[Coyote Poetry]

I liked the poem. A odd need and I felt the desperate need for another. Nice flow of thoughts led to solid ending. Thank you Cole for sharing the excellent poetry.
Coyote

[Corset]

I love that you are writing again, and the demonstrative way you have expressed the number eight, which to me actually looks like the sign for infinity , you won't let them disappear, not here, not here, not ever