Spit, or Swallow?

ten words I give contest tourist, grind, perforate, aquarium, abridge, frame, serve, score, effort, lease

 

Her photo tucked neatly

In a wooden frame,

It took a monumental effort,

For him to just get out of bed.

Searching for a way to abridge

whatever phase of grief he had reached

How many days had it been?

According to the experts,

He should be someplace

Different by now.

Bits of coffee,

Sticking in his teeth.

Spit or Swallow?

I told her not to buy the fine grind.

Was God up there, somewhere,

Keeping score?

He pulled high his knee socks,

Slipped into his birkenstocks.

His need to perforate holes

In the wall of grief around him

Would serve as an impetus

To renew the lease

On the life he once knew.

She loved the aquarium,

Her hair was strawberry,

In colour, and scent.

Random thoughts floating

To the surface

As he wandered the streets.

Hopelessly lost,

A tourist,

on the outside

of his broken heart.

Author's Note

use the following words in a poem -- for the ten words I give contest
tourist, grind, perforate, aquarium, abridge, frame, serve, score, effort, lease

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

"a tourist on the outside of his broken heart"

fantastic lines...

you show how grief can figuratively kill us...kill our zest for living...all that we did together with that person means nothing now doing it alone.

j.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thank you so much. I really liked this challenge.

[Lorry]

Wow, what a killer ending, a tourist on the outside of his broken heart. That line resonates like an echo after you read it. Superb.

[Lyn Anderson]

Thanks. I enjoy these 10 word challenges. They stretch the imagination.

[Lorry]

Yeah, I don't think I am there yet to try them, but I used to love doing photograph challenges, in the long, long ago on myspace. I don't see much of them here though, pity. Hmmm, idea bubbling :)