In The Wake of Devastation

-In The Wake of Devastation-
by Keaton Foster



The voice
The tone
All of it
Unknown
It said
Regretfully
Must I add
Child
Son
Creation
Mistaken
Your mother
My vacant lover
Is deceased
Not so much alive
Distant in the eyes
A transcendental expression
Of what will come next
Callus and rude
Sympathy sidestepped
I have to inform you
Of what is left
Nothing
She, your mother
Is rotting away
As these words
The ones
That I speak
Are spoken
Recorded
In your head
Burnt
Into your mind
Suffering
A shrine unto itself
You will have to deal
Life, everything real
Death, the reality
That we all must face
In time
But not now of course
Your will move on
As you have before
And so will I
Then
All there was
And has ever been
Was silence
I did not hang up the phone
I just placed it down
Outside I went
Towards the sea
I wished
Such a wish
In time
Came close to true
I stood at the shore
For a lifetime and more
I watched the waves
Break across the spine
Of the sand at my feet
What a thunderous sound
Both unnerving and surreal
I reached down
Touching the water
It was warm
Further inviting
I sat down
In the returning wake
Of every carried wave
I sat there just staring up
At such a relentless sky
The same sky once seen
By the mother lost to me
I said a prayer for her
Wishing her continued escape
Release from all of her pain
But more importantly
I prayed for her forgiveness
It was not mine before her death
Something that to this day
Has always been my mistake
In the wake of devastation
I will further wait
In this place
For quite some time
I know that I shall remain…


In The Wake of Devastation
Written by Keaton Foster Copyright © 2014.