Wednesday, May 8, 2024

All the king’s horses Nov. 13, 2013

  

I ache inside because I can’t help it,

Bruised from any impact so long ago

That the marks have vanished on the surface

And all I have is the throb of it inside,

The memory of it,

The touch of it,

Which lingers on my fingertips,

Though I know it is not real.

It is the way a soldier feels

After losing a limb at war

Still thinking he can still feel it,

Can move fingers or toes

That are not really there,

Only what is missing in me

I hacked off myself

And live with the regret

Of my own stupidity,

And wonder if “he”

The subject of so many

Of her love poems,

Might feel the same way,

Moving fingers and toes

That are no longer there,

Feeling the beat of a heart

So deeply broken

It should not beat at all,

Yet still beats,

Each piece pounding

Out of deep regrets,

All this hitting me now

From a silly glimpse

Of her in the flesh

After she has existed

So long in my imagination,

How long does it take

To put the pieces of the heart

Back together,

Lacking all the king’s men

And all the king’s horses

To help me?


email to Al Sullivan

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