I’m dashing out the door to present at a Young Authors Conference today, and my workshop involves writing poems about your fears and hopes. So I thought I’d share this poem that I wrote and shared back in 2007 about my biggest fear–a knock at the door with bad news.
Swallowed Whole
“I’m”
he stands at the front door
his face like a rubber sheet
stretched over a toothpick scaffolding
carrying death in the pocket of his
navy blue uniform
orderly, with perfect creases
“sorry”
before another word crawls from his swamp-mouth
I inventory:
who’s not here?
who will never be here again?
then I know
my ribs collapse
disintegrate
shrieking winds
shred my empty
skin
my eyes are a blind camera
my legs are just an idea
my life—the future of the world—flashes through my head
raptors screaming toward me, flapping savage wings
mechanized gears grinding into me
trout gasping for water…drying…dying
millions of pixels in chaos that form no picture
ashes pouring down my throat
my heart
freezes,
shatters,
falls
like a white ash tree’s purple-bruised leaves
drifting into
early snow
—Laura Purdie Salas, all rights reserved
Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day has the Poetry Friday Roundup today. Enjoy!