Short poems written between 2006 and 2010
1 | In
The Darkness | Caelan | Faintly
Hectic
March 25, 2006
Emily, give me guidance.
I cannot choose between
the aging, the loneliness,
or the quickly fading winter
that has mixed my few remaining words
into a pile of dirty slush.
"IN THE DARKNESS"
September 11, 2006
He only picked a book after she did,
then sat across from the two of us.
The room was barely lit, yet somehow
they managed to see the words I couldn't.
She read slowly and never finished;
he pulled one after another from the shelf
and flipped through them quickly
before tossing them to the side.
I sat beside her and fought to stay one page ahead
while trying to understand his shadowed expressions,
unsuccessful in both attempts but unable to move
to look through his pile or turn on the light.
We shared the darkness and never said a word.
She was curious, patient, still seemingly unaware;
he was focused, hurried, searching for something
I was terrified they would both find,
a fear so real that it forced my eyes open
long before the sun rose."CAELAN"
Written for Chrissy & Caelan
Baby boy, let me bring you to the meadow
and share with you a story of twenty years.
Let me teach you a song that she and I wrote
out in the country. Let me show you the hill
where she will be waiting with fierce protection
and unwavering faith. Let me lead you through
the crowded hallways where sometimes music
will be the only connection, but she will hold you
and cry with you after everyone else has left.
And yes, let me remind you that though she may
visit the moon in confusing moments, I don't think
she'd like to live there. Let me wait with you
as she searches for comfort and along the way
discovers her courage. Let me learn with you
the full power and beauty of her true self.
Let me walk with you past the meadow,
down every long road and side street
strengthened by years of snow and sun
and children's feet, then bring you back
to the beginning to reveal the shortcut
ahead of us. We could be there tomorrow
if we just cut through the trees.
"FAINTLY HECTIC"
Written for John Updike
Completed March 6, 2009
Hearing the news in an airport while waiting
for a delayed flight home, I wished that
my first thought had not been of the words
I had hated so much just one month earlier.
Even though I had struggled through that first
novel, I decided then to read the second one,
but quit right before the next pointless affair.
So a few weeks after your death, I sold your book
for seventeen dollars. Here I am, claiming to be
a writer, a reader, but when faced with the loss
of one of the few remaining giants, there was
little else from my thirty years to recall. I did not
think of the short story I once read, the one that
I could never again remember in detail but always
remembered liking; the one that made me so sure
I would enjoy a longer form. Nor did I think of
the two words I once stole from an article, placed
in my stockpile of possibilities and carried around
for three years. Though appearing as a beautifully
poetic description of a man, they always remained
meaningless. How strange to only use them now.
All poems written by Alana Munoz
