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Kailashana
Kailashana
Sep 30, 2009 ⭐ View statistics (Premium feature)

A Hungry Ghost

The house is empty
and the walls scream
as the paint freezes
and the floorboards creak
in this alliteration of silence,
out of the mouth of depression
I pull myself upright
I am resolute in exhausted
Personified in hollow
No one is home but
these ghosts of what was
how it could have been
how it might have been
how it should have been
but wasn’t.

My children fly, crash and sometimes burn
they tear across my heart, scorch my soul
I have
even forgotten
how my marriage once
tasted, when it was delicious, before cold scraps fell
from the table,
and the stains of my dog are long dry
now, though I often find myself
running
on his behalf.

Running nowhere fast with this time I hold
in my hands and all that I see is
a still birth of another me,
losing heart, losing light
lost in what is,
I am disappearing in this river I am,

quietly drowning in my words.


— Kailashana, Sep 30, 2009

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Critiques

AC

andrew cormack

16 years 8 months ago

I like the charge of the

I like the charge of the poem, for its honest portrait of the pain mid life gives us. Hell, once you're through it, you'll be smelling roses again!
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 8 months ago

Thanks for reading, even

Thanks for reading, even though we always have our *challenges*, n'est-ce pas? (And please don't forget about the link I provided.) ~A
L

lyz

16 years 8 months ago

Dear Kailashana

Enjoyed this very much. written with strength. Well done. Love to u and yours, Lyz.
hugo la rosa

hugo la rosa

16 years 8 months ago

Dear Kailashana:

Great poem, even when I'm at loss for words. I can only say that your poem is excellent, really full of depth and meaning. Sincerely, Hugo
Seren

Seren

16 years 8 months ago

Dearest Anna

We all drown in our lives but its how we resurface from it ... and you do it,you would smile and say :) bring it on,and thats what I love about you,I am home wooot got home about an hour ago and I am soooo happy to be here lol take care huni love and higgest bugs Jayne x x x
B

bjp

16 years 8 months ago

Dear Anna,

This is an inordinantly good poem. It is all of us as the wages of time flatten and seep through our thinning fingers. It is a love poem of loss and a sharing to the world with no hand upon yours to comfort. Let these words be your comfort for a time; rougher and more deficient than any warmth from skin. Your loveliness is inherent and the "why"s for the absence of a lover's motions of confirmation and emotings in gasps is all the pain contained in this forever poem. I would not keep a lover from you, but the loss to poetry would make me hesitate just a moment. Brian
seabhac

seabhac

16 years 8 months ago

I was just taken in from the

I was just taken in from the first line of this. my favourite lines were in this alliteration of silence, out of the mouth of depression I pull myself upright I am resolute in exhausted Personified in hollow Having captured the atmosphere of the place so perfectly , making me feel physically cold, then the feeling crept in and the lack of life in the exhausted body just added another dimension altogether. Breathtaking and beautiful
Seren

Seren

16 years 8 months ago

Dearest Anna

Congratulations on spoltight huni well earned you are writing profoundly lately ... Love and huggest bugs jayne x x x
Hooded Stranger

Hooded Stranger

16 years 8 months ago

Drowned

Great write and I have to say the finale was the crunch point...beautifully concluded: "I am disappearing in this river I am, quietly drowning in my words" Awesome! HS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "With all that I am and all that I could be, I walk this earth and yet nobody sees me".
Kailashana

Kailashana

16 years 8 months ago

Hi Dear Readers, thank you

Hi Dear Readers, thank you much for reading and commenting. Every poem is very lonely without readers. See you on the dark side of the moon. pink floyd. Hugs, Anna
Bonitaj

Bonitaj

16 years 8 months ago

shaken not stirred...

Hi Anna! THinking of a introductory title - this came to me - but I think in your case it should be in reverse! This piece certainly evokes a lot for a number of women - myself included. Thank you for sharing this valuable vignette of your life's experience. I do believe however, that to have experienced these lows you have the capacity to fly as high! It is the ability to translate these emotions into words that "takes us into deep waters with you" - to use your analogy of drowning! Gorgeous write!| Bonita j
Nordic cloud

Nordic cloud

16 years 8 months ago

a kind of limbo of despair

You sound a little like Longo in a kind of limbo of despair, I wonder, I wonder if it is a good place; but it prompts you to produce good poetry and for that we here are pleased, but as for your being in this position we find it sad and wish it were otherwise. I am sure many can put themselves in your place here as it must be a particular pain when children leave, and then too when they, as they are wont to, criticise and create unnecessary pain due to lack of understanding. Dear Anna of the skies of thoughtfulness Love from me Ann.