Prompted by Poet's Place Cafe

A Haunting - Process and Product

A Haunting

Tonight a riveting movie
had me stuck to the small screen
reading subtitles.
Now with the credits rolling
I sit at my computer
to separate myself
from its images
and write lighter words that "take a bite
out of life”,
tasting each bitter letter as I type
while an African rhythm
pulses from the TV,
words in a language I don't understand,
in shadow I do.
The tone and timbre haunt,
the thrum of the bass,
the repetition of sounds,
"He lele, He lele",
I respond.
It pulls me back
to the horrific theme of genocide
in which I drowned for the last 2 hours.
Impossible to detach.
I close my eyes
and see kneeling men and women
one by one, shot in the back of the head.
Putrifying bodies left in the street,
the stink is in my nostrils
and permeates this page.
         ~~Judi Van Gorder

Notes: ▼

29 Lines
Prompted by:: "Poetry: Process & Product"