He pads down dark corridors
peering into empty rooms
Loss curls around him
rubbing his stubble
He swallows it whole
and feels it settle
heavy
in his belly
Picking at a frayed seam
he wonders how he can be both
so full
and so empty
This is for Bjorn at dVerse Poets Pub where we have been asked to write a poem of forty-four words including the word, “curl”, also know as a quadrille.
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Death and loss always make one feel empty ~ This post is terribly sad, I can’t imagine how I will be if this happened to me (knock on wood) ~
Thanks for joining us ~
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Me either, Grace. I have recently had two friends experience this. One was a still born baby, the other an adult child, so it’s been on my mind lately.
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Every parent’s worst fears – expressed with such sad beauty.
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Good use of “curl” to describe what loss could do to someone.
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Powerful piece to goes straight to the heart. Well written.
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loss curls around…yes a vivid image..it does overcome and choke completely.
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Heart-rending in its masterly understatement.
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The heaviness and emptiness both experienced at the same time, a great disconsolate moment in time, well revealed.
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Dark, well stated
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Wowzers….that title packs a heavy punch that settles hard with the words that follow.
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Not a lot left to the imagination with that.
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“Loss curls around him …
He swallows it whole
and feels it settle
heavy
in his belly”
This is my favorite use of “curl” so far.
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Thank you Carissa.
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The sadness of an empty house is so full of weight… the title adds so much additional weight so it’s almost unbearable
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This is heartbreaking. No parent ever wants to outlive their child. And if they do… you’ve described that emptiness and pain vividly.
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Oh this is so raw. The person you explain with your words…walks through the title of this poem and there is such an aching here. To lose one’s child is an unnatural thing in the cycle of being. I lost my brother when he was just 51 and my mother and father truly had a hole, an empty space, left within their selves. I think the stubble and the walking here…so achingly forlorn.
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Thank you, Lillian. I have a dear friend who lost his adult child, and another friend who had a still born baby both within the last month. I can only imagine…
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the paradoxical end is the perfect flourish for this achingly lovely walk through loss
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This is very raw and yet beautifully written, you have really captured this side of a curl in a very poignant way.
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It is the worst. We are never ready for this one.
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This hit me directly in the gut, and heart. I.cannot.imagine.
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You pose a question I dare not attempt to answer. Wonderful and deep poem, thank you for sharing it!
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Thank you Oloriel.
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Loss curls around him
rubbing his stubble
This is such a poignant image… sigh..
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Oh this is so sad and heartrending, Mary. Losing a child is always so tragic. I so like the way you have used the prompt word:
‘Loss curls around him
rubbing his stubble’
And those final lines reverberate.
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The great weight of grief. Raw but beautiful.
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It’s amazing how much power you can pack into so few words.
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Thank you Silver. xx
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Filled with grief, emptied by loss…overwhelming emotions. A childhood friend of mine recently lost a daughter-in-law and grandchild…it’s awful.
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My sympathies to her, or him. I have not myself, but recently had two friends who outlived their child, which is what got me thinking about it.
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Thanks, Mary.
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It’s wonderful you are able to express life experience into such a lovely piece
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Thank you.
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well, you know I know this feeling, and you captured it ~
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Thank you, and I’m so very sorry.
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