i can see she is still pretty
Is this a love story? Or a breakup tale?
Last of the set I intended to send in for the Golden Point Awards 2015. Maybe it's better I missed the deadline?
image from pixabay
i can see she is still pretty
i have come back
to visit my lover
many years after i left.
it was a parting of necessity
i assured her
but she would not listen.
i didn't call you a bitch
certainly not,
maybe my language was inadequate
and we were young
and rebellious and hot headed
but certainly not a bitch.
but she would not listen
not the way one reads the words.
she had grown lovelier as she aged
fuller body
curves
scent of freshly cut flowers
ixoras in the sunshine.
then i told her i will leave
i will move on
i love her for what
i have learnt.
it may not be pretty
not always
but it certainly opens
my eyes.
and for the last time
i turn my back on her
walk her pavements
stub out my cigarettes
in her flower beds
linger at her bus stops
as i have lingered years before.
written 02.02.2007
revised 01.05.2015
******************
Years ago, I lived briefly in a neighbourhood in Jalan Bukit Merah. Vibrant, wild and dangerous at times, but also quite unlikely friendly, kind and compassionate. It was quite a ride and an eye-opening experience...
"Things do not change; we change."
-- Henry David Thoreau
And if you have lost your way : Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2018
Last of the set I intended to send in for the Golden Point Awards 2015. Maybe it's better I missed the deadline?
i can see she is still pretty
i have come back
to visit my lover
many years after i left.
it was a parting of necessity
i assured her
but she would not listen.
i didn't call you a bitch
certainly not,
maybe my language was inadequate
and we were young
and rebellious and hot headed
but certainly not a bitch.
but she would not listen
not the way one reads the words.
she had grown lovelier as she aged
fuller body
curves
scent of freshly cut flowers
ixoras in the sunshine.
then i told her i will leave
i will move on
i love her for what
i have learnt.
it may not be pretty
not always
but it certainly opens
my eyes.
and for the last time
i turn my back on her
walk her pavements
stub out my cigarettes
in her flower beds
linger at her bus stops
as i have lingered years before.
written 02.02.2007
revised 01.05.2015
******************
Years ago, I lived briefly in a neighbourhood in Jalan Bukit Merah. Vibrant, wild and dangerous at times, but also quite unlikely friendly, kind and compassionate. It was quite a ride and an eye-opening experience...
"Things do not change; we change."
-- Henry David Thoreau
And if you have lost your way : Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street
© cheong lee san ( dsnake1 ) 2018
Labels: Golden Point Awards, GPA, heartlands, life, memories, Singapore, urban
posted by dsnake1 at 11:45 PM
14 Comments:
What a sad story, but we know there is no going back.
I think it's a little bit of both 💜 wonderfully wistful write!
What an amazing metaphor for a life lived, and trying to return to recapture the memories.....I think you sell your poems short! Very worthwhile to submit to any publication.
Well, I just LOVED how this imagined person became a place in the closing stanza. Very cool. Wonderfully done, my friend.
Sounds like you made the right move : )
ZQ
Oh, I enjoyed discovering that your love was a place. I too have fallen deeply in love with certain places, as one might with a person.
Of couyrse it is a love story. How we need to remember them as we get older and the chase less important or our of the question. We live in our memories and hopefully should regret nothing.
What a great read this was.
annell,
no, there is no going back. it is after all "a parting of necessity".
Sanaa,
it certainly is. :)
Donna,
thank you!
i did return to the place to relive the memories. it is much orderly there now. :)
Sherry,
yes, it is a personification of a place. i am glad that you liked it. :)
ZQ,
well, one has to make tough decisions sometimes. :)
Rosemary,
yes, it is a place that is very close to my heart. :)
Robin,
yes, good or bad, we should regret nothing.
Yes, I do see now according to your afterword that you are writing about a PLACE, but really I like reading it as a poem about a person as well. It could have been. I definitely could picture a scene where two former lovers would meet many years later and realize that what was past was past and that parting WAS a necessity...but one can learn from all. I could picture this scene vividly and feel the pain of both in the situation....for what COULD have been if both were different. Really I think this is a powerful poem. It grabbed me emotionally.
thank you, Mary, for your insightful comment. i was writing about a place, and most times, a place is often described as "she". but there is one more reason. when i was writing it, i was thinking about my late wife, and it was in that place where i met her, and spent some happy years there.
Some bridges will never be mended... and maybe there's a reason for that. To go on and find new persons and places.
certainly, life moves on. :)
thank you, Bjorn.
I liked it. Simple and effective. Tale well versed.
Thank you, magiceye! so glad to hear from you. :)
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