I am twenty one (Poem)
I am twenty one
Now I am twenty one.
Twenty years ate me up
Like a dragon does a pup.
I gained nothing,
But a few wry affections.
I lost nothing,
But my loving Grandfather.
I shared nothing,
But my soul with the girl next door.
My memory fades
On to a fainting face
Rounded by a muslin cloth.
She wept… and wept…and
Darkness ruled over us.
When light came,
In the gyres of my memory,
I lost her forever.
We shared the past,
But the present shared us.
My grandmother
Taught me the Bible,
But now my poems
Speak about a dead God.
A Good Friday in a sad April
Gave me the first light.
Should I mourn
These whole years?
Should I celebrate
My being inside
This gas chamber
Let me see
What’s happening
In my twenty second year.
Comments