Together, or: Eventually

Posted on October 13, 2020December 20, 2020 by ben Alexander

                                         there
                    you are 

                              stretching upwards and sideways
                                           squirming wriggling everywhere
                                        going 
                 nowhere 

           even the walls are beyond
                            you 
                         are trapped in a narrow cup

        going nowhere
but down down down
                    and out 
                              eventually

                              but
         we do 
have a bit of time together, don't we?
stay with me for Shabbat, won't you?

I hope you won't go out like last time

black wick stuck in the stiff cold wax
suffocated by frozen white bubbles I 
was not at all ready for your absence

6 thoughts on “Together, or: Eventually”

s.s. October 13, 202018:24 Reply

I was not at all ready for your absence… beautiful ending! I like the everywhereness of this poem
1. ben Alexander October 13, 202018:27 Reply
  
  thank you so much! you know – I actually think a lot about how specific individual and group ways of life may seem very particular to us, but a gentle scratch at the surface of our behaviors reveals that we are all equally human.
  1. s.s. October 13, 202018:34 Reply
    
    So true. But It amazes me every single time that there’s another human who identifies with something I write. Equally human is right.
jewishyoungprofessional October 13, 202012:07 Reply

Love! What a cool description of the yahrzeit candle / the soul of the person remembered by the yahrzeit. And the line breaks are brilliant!
1. ben Alexander October 13, 202012:09 Reply
  
  thanks so much 🙂
  
  and – if you look at it directly from my blog (rather than the WP reader) you’ll see that the text is colored accordingly too!
  1. jewishyoungprofessional October 13, 202013:13 Reply
    
    Yup, I saw!