Death Cheats on Crossword Puzzles
Will I click my heels three times when I go?
Will the glass slipper fit perfectly
before I slip away?
I can’t get away from death
It follows me like a job
that I don’t want to be late for
when I have rent to pay
Is death the new neighbor
whose door I knocked on
when I was in second grade?
When I was brave to make
a future best friend
who I hadn’t yet met?
Did it drive me to take wrong exits
show up on ramps and bridges?
Is it like the new glasses
with a strong prescription
that I need time to get used to?
Was death those hours spent
on a road in a snow storm
or in Weymouth when I caught a virus
that never went away?
Did it make my hands shake
that day on Tremont Street
when I lost my innocence
and everything changed?
Was it the dogs in my dream
that wouldn’t let me pass?
Did it sit beside me
when I rode on the bus?
Did it watch me with binoculars?
Wake on the wrong side of the bed?
Did it send songbirds instead of angels?
Look for its shadow on my window ledge?
Did Mr. MacGregor catch Peter Rabbit?
Did the Gladiator go to heaven?
Did death clean my kitchen
when I wasn’t looking?
Did it cheat on crossword puzzles
to save me time?
_____Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United/ dVerse Poets Pub
April 21st, 2023 12:29 am
What a great piece of writing! Profound in its musing, personal and yet has such resonance.
April 21st, 2023 1:38 am
Is it that shadow not-quite-seen out of the corner of one’s eye? Or does it, as some say, stand always at one’s right shoulder? I tend to think that, just as one cannot escape it, neither can one catch it unawares. It will come in its own appointed time. (Admittedly, with every year it gets closer, and the more we age the less we can deny that.)
This is certainly one way in which time very much affects all things!
April 21st, 2023 2:02 am
This took ambition, it turned out really good. I can do “Did it drive me to take wrong exits show up on ramps and bridges?” without even thinking about death. I like to have my Navigator with me when driving in the larger cities.
..
April 21st, 2023 8:19 am
What a compelling slant you took when contemplating death and time. I like the mix of friendly and creepy, and am a bit spooked at the thought of death watching with binoculars.
April 21st, 2023 8:30 am
I didn’t even know there was a prompt about time! But I can’t get away from that mystery either.
April 21st, 2023 9:15 am
Wonderful.
April 21st, 2023 10:39 am
It gives an eerie feeling
April 21st, 2023 10:56 am
Death as companion. When do we start recognizing it?
April 21st, 2023 5:20 pm
Love the musings here…and most especially these words:
“Is it like the new glasses
with a strong prescription
that I need time to get used to?”
Death bides its own time I suspect….certainly those of us lucky enough to age into the septuagenarian or octogenarian stages of life, understand the path before us is much shorter than the path behind us. Perhaps it’s why if I check a book out of the library and “just can’t get into it by about page 5 or 6 or 10, I chuck it. With only so much time left, I want to read enjoyable books these days! 🙂
April 21st, 2023 8:40 pm
My goodness, your poem this fine day … is one of your finest .. ever! Death is inevitable, I don’t think of it often, I simply know it will come in its own time. A truly beautiful write, Colleen.
April 21st, 2023 10:18 pm
I’m back writing. I had this thought of many (liked the snow bound driver, I was able to walk to a neighboring house) and I settled on telling of my blog series of the nine lives I’ve lived, I’m on the ninth and getting old. I’d like to die in my sleep.
..
April 22nd, 2023 8:29 am
I really liked this interpretation of the prompt. It showcases how well you write about weighty topics while keeping a whimsical feel. You really balance them both so well.
April 23rd, 2023 3:55 am
Great writing! I love the imagery. Now I have to try to keep the thought of Death constantly around out of the mind. 🙂
April 23rd, 2023 10:34 am
This made me think about the film “the seventh seal” and playing chess with death to delay the inevitable
April 23rd, 2023 10:58 am
A brilliant poem–so well crafted, and it really makes me think.
I can definitely see Death playing chess with the knight in The Seventh Seal, too.
April 23rd, 2023 4:21 pm
Interesting contemplation. I think death always lurks in the darkness….
April 29th, 2023 8:30 pm
This is brilliant! I love the title, and the format you wrote in.