Understand (poem)

Posted by ractrose on 28 Dec 2019 in Art, Poems

The mystery, the public mystery, of the clan

Closeted in a dusty morning room, its shrouds

New lifted, drinking coffee in the shimmy

Of sunlight through blinds and pushing clouds

Shows each face in shining pallor, jowls

Full and clear-etched, think of Grandpa nestled

Midst the tinsel

They have brought him down to share the holiday

When under strain with trepidation

Celadon with thin projections like a fish’s fins

At sea he waited for a lead and eyed his friends

The angry help of a housebound neighbor

Entrusted with the work of

Or positioned among the bric-à-brac like

A secretary

Furnishing in the guest’s discomfiture

Such merriment as to recall a quip

In your dotage you may learn to dance

For you admire the movements so

It’s not too late, but NO I would never be that person

If you saw a wrathful indignation

Uselessness but yet important

No mind so set alight

By gossip would attack for pleasure

Understand

What, then, if it were too late

No, nothing reasoned into an act

Of belief

Vendetta only sarcasm wept over

While they chit-chat and threaten to go off

Understand