Sunday, August 24, 2014

Sunday Visit

Teodoro S Gruhl


Sunday Visit 

up a long flight of stairs
climbing -  longing
to turn and run down
before they reached
the door - instead in
Sunday finery marching
each step too high 
for small legs pushed ahead - 
offerings to seal any rift, 
sustainers of  sight 
in the absence of light
in those flat near dead eyes
that sat right behind that
peeled-paint door - waiting
to stutter step–the beginning
of long talk in that small sour
scented room in a language that
bone-boring-baffles –  
Until flat dull eyed woman - rises
from her threadbare armchair
at the window moving toward
them, slowly, like a rickety
cart rattling with dry bones -
and they, good children, do
not cringe as she opens her
dry lips and vomits hot breath 
over them - delivering
 the wretched requisite kiss 
of their sweet release
Visit over ...
until
next
week

10 comments:

  1. Age is not always pretty.. and those visits are not always as popular for the young ones.. still it's a journey it's worth going through...

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  2. Whoa! I did enjoy reading this with admiration for the writer but it was painful... as I'm sure was intended. Great piece!
    ZQ

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  3. Your poem reminds me of visiting my great-mother in a nursing home when I was a young child. The old woman scared me to death as she rose from her bed like a wraith. Fortunately, she lived in another state, so I never saw her again. No weekly visits for me!

    An Ernest Whirl

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  4. Yes it can be hard to visit those older relatives when we're young. But we'll have memories of them later.

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  5. Oh my goodness, one scary grannie, at least in the kid's eyes! I quite liked coming back down the steps too!

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  6. This was a combo of fairy tale and horror, lol. afraid for the children, some old people can be a bit of a fright...but sweethearts most of them are.

    Jamztoma
    Jamztoma.blogspot.com

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  7. I can imagine this from your poem. Bravo!

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  8. I am sure I can remember clinging to my mothers skirt being urged to give this old lady a kiss. Let's hope she thought it worth while, little brat that I was!

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  9. I am so impressed by the way you literally go into the head of this little girl, in her sunday finery, marching each step too high... By the way you get the reader to truly identify with her... Thanks!

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  10. You have captured that experience perfectly here Pearl!

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