NaPoWriMo - Day Six - A Valediction

Wednesday nights are church.
Storms crash overhead but
there is no hail, no rain,
no blue white lightning to
pierce the veil of darkness.


I have to get ready, but
there is nothing there, the
closet is empty and I stand
naked, crying
not knowing why.


Sirens sound, doors open
and close. Reverberating through thunder.
I see everything and nothing
because everything is too much
and nothing is not enough.


You’re there though
work clothes in the street
angry water swirling
around your knees
face to the sky


i want so badly to scream,
the water…it’s hungry tonight
lapping at your flesh,
torrents raining down from the sky
chanting, “hungry, hungry, hungry”


I try to understand,
watching helplessly as you
skim the overhead power lines
with the buzzing edge
of a chainsaw blade.


“What are you DOING?”
“Don’t you KNOW…….?”


FInally, the blue white flash
of storm, of electricity untamed
and suddenly, you’re just….
not there. Gone.
Wiped away in a second.


“Daddy?”
“Dad……..”


Tears roll unchecked, tracing
lines of grief, of pain
mourning all over my face
horror in my heart,
soul empty.


I’m still talking to you, as if you never left
and nothing here makes any sense
except that you’re still gone
and I just woke from nightmare feeling
seventeen all over again.


In loving Memory.
Edwin Sutton Pond
Father, Best Friend, My Everything.
2/15/1934 – 6/15/1981





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