We are dallying in the mud
Heavy rain bouncing off the branches
Pounding out its rhythm
We linger under the cracks in the sky
The light catches her eyes
They are bright
Clear as a new dawn
We pick flowers to place in vases
The sap trickles down our fingers
We lick it up like honey
The day passes
Like work we toil to stay awake
Every single moment imminent
That is the risk of being
We set off again
Faces smeared
Rain or tears
We are not sure
Our thoughts feel strained
Sometimes it feels as if our insides fall out
Uncontrollable
Unnoticed
The mud dries
We climb the stairs
Fill a pitcher with water
Place the flowers on the window sill
Crack our bones and try to sleep.
I love that you have used the word ‘dallying, Jae! It’s not used much these days and, whenever I see it, I hear my grandmother’s voice singing ‘My old man said follow the van, and don’t dilly-dally on the way’. I got caught in the rain on Friday and appreciate the lines:
ReplyDelete‘Heavy rain bouncing off the branches
Pounding out its rhythm’.
I can sense life-ache in this poem, especially in:
‘Like work we toil to stay awake
Every single moment imminent
That is the risk of being’
and
‘Our thoughts feel strained
Sometimes it feels as if our insides fall out
Uncontrollable’.
The flowers seem to be the only brightness.
Those days when one holds on to any dribbles of sweetness they can, because the days just time feels almost physically painful as it goes by... the feeling of weariness is just so well described.
ReplyDeleteOh this seems so much like November.... the mud and tiredness not from the lack of sleep, but simply the being
ReplyDeleteThis is incredibly beautiful, Jae!❤️ I love; "We pick flowers to place in vases/The sap trickles down our fingers/We lick it up like honey/The day passes."
ReplyDeleteI love the lines Sabnaa quotes so much....and love that you brought home fresh flowers, always such a treat.
ReplyDeleteBreathtaking...literally. I find myself forgetting to breathe as I read, I am so transfixed by this. Its magnificent beauty and ambivalence. "Crack our bones and try to sleep" - wonderful ending line.
ReplyDeleteI was caught by the idea of work as one kind of awake/awareness and the exchange of bitter for sweet (sap for honey, rainy day play for sunny).
ReplyDeleteFrom the act of picking flowers, you have opened a world of imagination. Love it!
ReplyDeleteAh, it's all always about 'the risk of being', isn't it?
ReplyDeleteAt least when walking in the rain your tears will be unnoticed. I'd like to buy flowers too but I always feel sad when they die so instead have some planter boxes on my balcony that can give me a longer lasting show.
ReplyDelete