When Time Doesn’t Rhyme
You like to rhyme time
and make it seem natural
You make the best of chaos
and acknowledge denial
You leave your will and testament
with every written poem
You read newspaper obituaries
as if looking for your next home room
You hurt your knees
scrubbing kitchen floors
You gave up praying on them
years ago
You wear your beret
in your imaginary coffin
while your lover rests in trees
where wildlife consumes him
You regret not sending
a message in a bottle
dug from a backyard dump
from before there was plastic
Birds are your angels now
You practice to be one
You save your voice
and hold out for an heirloom
You vow not to forget
love’s lasting imprint
when life has been spent
and time no longer counts you
_________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United/ dVerse Poets Pub
October 31st, 2021 12:46 am
I love this! All of it, and especially the last verse.
I am past getting down on floors myself, to scrub or pray, or even exercise – I’d never get up again!
I think I’d rather rest in trees, notwithstanding the wildlife. (On the other hand, I have the beret.)
And I wonder if you are practising to be bird or angel … either would be sweet.
October 31st, 2021 3:33 am
I think birds are always angels. even crows. but especially snowy plovers ~
October 31st, 2021 8:38 am
i loved this poem.
growing old doesn’t come easy. there’s always the inconveniences and fears, but one will overcome.
October 31st, 2021 10:31 am
I never used to read obits to see if there was anybody I knew included, but nowadays…um…
Always dig your work(s), CR
October 31st, 2021 10:49 am
Love that last stanza, Colleen. Isn’t it the truth? Love is all that really matters!
October 31st, 2021 11:16 am
I now imagine the birds as colorful angels, but vultures? I’d have to think about that.
Each stanza gives us a past and present but what about the future?
October 31st, 2021 11:35 am
all the “chaos” of this poems fits so well together, there is nothing i can single out to praise, it’s all so tight, completely agree with bev about that last stanza… very well written
October 31st, 2021 4:22 pm
I really love the last stanza, such a great message. It’s a bit sad to think that there might come of a time when the world stops counting us. But if love remembers and remains, then it doesn’t seem so bad.
November 1st, 2021 10:00 am
A perceptive poem about aging that many of us can relate to. I think a beret is a great thing to wear in a coffin, by the way, and I might just do it myself some day.
November 1st, 2021 3:50 pm
I always find your poems sublime and powerful in their depiction of aging, and this one does a great job as well. I especially like the last stanza.
November 11th, 2021 6:02 pm
Beautiful! I especially admire; “Birds are your angels now/You practice to be one/You save your voice/and hold out for an heirloom.”:)
November 11th, 2021 6:35 pm
This is such a gentle, sorrowful and angelic poem about aging and the transformations it unfolds. Amen.
November 12th, 2021 7:57 am
This is so beautifully poignant.
I especially like the final stanza that brings it all together.
November 12th, 2021 9:53 am
This is so beautiful and it’s the kind of legacy I would like to leave.
November 13th, 2021 8:06 pm
I love the will & testament poems you leave behind, and the scrubbed floors unprayed on. Potent imagery. Leaves a long-lasting impression.
November 14th, 2021 11:11 am
That last stanza really hits me… how we cease to count time, just merely exist as we age couldn’t be any more true.