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Ashes
Member since May 27, 2026
Member for 8 days
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Pandora's Box
You are my Pandora’s Box.
In my mind I am five again, sitting beside you
and wondering at your face. I know nothing
of the man that you are, only that you are my father
and that I am happy to be near you.
I am forty and my mother tells me how
every day would start in a bottle.
My five and forty selves can’t imagine this
is you. My five and forty selves want something more
from this icon you have become. This image
of a man in his prime, strong and undeniable, defined
by planes and angles, the shape of your face
imprinted on mine.
I am five and you are holding my hand within your own.
Read the rest of the poem Show less
I am forty and you are gone, your hands mirrored
in mine.
You are the box I should not open, but can not help myself
from visiting time and time again. I lift the lid once,
twice, three times - ritualistically. I learn
how you were beaten as a child. How your own intellect
held you prisoner. How the pressure for perfection
held you in its grip and demanded more than you
could give. How by the time you were my father
you were already broken, like the fragile wings
of all the things that flew out of that box
so long ago. And like Pandora, I shake that box
only to find myself at the bottom, the shred of hope
you held pressed to your heart.
-revised LAP 05/29/26-
Ashes’s timeline
- May 2026
-
31 SunReceived a critique
on Pandora's Box from @Tink
"I get that! I wonder if there is a better way to get that point across, so that that memory comes across clearer, maybe a line like "...at your face. trying to see through the veil exposing the real you..." maybe. It ma…" -
31 SunReceived a critique
on Pandora's Box from @Tink
"I get that! I wonder if there is a better way to get that point across, so that that memory comes across clearer, maybe a line like "...at your face. trying to see through the veil exposing the real you..." maybe. It ma…" -
30 SatReceived a critique
on Pandora's Box from @Tink
"Hello, I'm Tink. I enjoyed the read. Thank you for sharing. The one place where I had pause was the use of the line "wondering at your face". In my mind wondering about your face would have made more sense. "at" throws…" -
29 FriCritiqued
"leafy dapples" by @crypticbard
"I'm with Geezer. I can imagine looking upinto this canopy, and hush falling all around as in slow motion bits and pieces drift to the ground with light catching on them. Almost a slow-motion capture in a movie. I feel f…" -
29 FriFirst critique offered
on "leafy dapples" by @crypticbard
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29 FriFirst publication
Pandora's Box
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29 Fri
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27 WedJoined Neopoet
Membership begins
First poem published 2 days later.
About Me
About me
Poet. Writer. Social activist.
Location: CAN
Favorite Poets
Leonard Cohen. Robert Frost. Guy Gavriel Kay. rupi kaur. Japanese poetry from the Heain Era. Michael Ondaaje. Margaret Atwood.
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