the lone yellow pebble
bore witness to the
abduction that took place at midnight
the man was bound
and gagged
and led away as women wept
keep me out of this one
did you know that a bear needs
twenty seven square miles
of forest
to live?
keep me out of this one
the woman cut the balls off
the man who raped her
keep me out of this one
♦photos/123rf.com♦
Thank you very much.
Nerve raking realities depicted in beautiful contrasts.
Your poems have always been an inspiration to me.
I feel this piece is profound in so many ways it is difficult to describe. The use of the pebble at the beginning is wonderful and I love that you give it a certain kind of personification that almost seems to carry through the entire poem. I don’t know if that was the intent; but I actually feel like I’m the pebble (a tiny creature in such an infinitely huge world) viewing these things that happen around me. I take them in but detach myself from them; for they are awful things. It says a lot about the human condition.
Kudos to a job well done.
Very powerful work. You moved me. Well done.
Wise to observe this from a distance.
Powerful poetry! I like the way you structured it, building up to the ending.
I went to read version one as a companion to this and it appears to have been overwritten with this one? Hmmm… can you restore it?
I recalled it as more subtle – both blunt instruments but that coming from an oblique angle where this one smashes into you head on.
Yowza! I read it last night before I went to bed and by this morning had remembered it as a longish poem. It’s that powerful…
whoosh!
Some of the most profund terrors in life … Yes, “keep me out of this one” … but let me remember the pain of others and do what I can. Let me always be grateful.
This is a startling poem and well done. Thank you.
Very different scenarios, all dangerous if your reality is the man being dragged off, face to face invading a bear’s territory, or suffering consequences of a woman violated.
Painful and descriptive of a gut reaction to another persons reality. xPenx
Three great contrasts. I really enjoyed this one.