Poem: Whispers

 

Whispers

 

hungry ladder of ribs

not guarding a name,

it climbs itself,

rummaging where arteries once thrived,

 scrounging for fossils:

a fragment of a lover,

a figment of some fond past,

a wisp of caress.

 

breezes breaches the skull,

swirl upon swirl,

until an eye socket remembers 

when two people  

wonderfully misbehaved.

but the breeze kicks up, 

whiffles and gusts, 

which scurry to chase each other 

in a whistling race.

 

everything inside the ribs, the skull,

and all the rest of the bones, 

scatters.

nothing left 

but whispers.  whispers 

from a cracked, chalky pottery

of vanished face.

 

=========================================

10/26  heavy, heavy heavy mods... (changed title b/c another p. titled "restless")

5/8/24 ... 

2/9  "slept" replaces "once slept" ... "matters" replaces "matters now"

2/7  "past" replaces "gone" ... "crumble" replaces "last crumb"  (the sound of a single word can wreck the whole thing, just like in music) ... "vanished" replaces "lost" 

2/6 ... "time" replaces "place"