Death in potato fields

Death never jumped on me, like it does on other people;
Unless that time, when a man died in the potato fields;
I think he was my grandfather -
you see, sometimes my memory gets blurry
and things that passed, seem to have perished
and left no trace or ashes on the way out.
And for some reason - all I did was laugh,
when he collapsed on the ground he was working so hard on.
Potatoes seemed important, while life was slipping away.
And that's how it is, isn't it?

Death never haunted me, like it haunts houses,
that keep losing souls to the unknown, for no reason;
It just hung on a wire - taking everything
and making it estranged, leaving me jealous of their misery.
People died over the phone, while I went on
as if I never knew them, never stopping at warning signs
- all in white, all in pearls;
And for some reason - all I felt was a story,
that wasn't even my own.
And that's how it is, isn' it?

It was always there, behind the curtains -
while I was standing in front, playing with crowns
and adoring the crowd - with my face to the lights
and my back to philosophy.
Like my father's back was - towards predictions,
when he was stabbed to death on the Ides of March.
March into graves like soldiers of a Roman legion,
For death is a certainty, containing centuries of sorrow
- flashing by, like an army of flies..



Poetry by FrancescaLuca
Read 870 times
Written on 2008-04-04 at 13:09

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ANUPAM
Death is a certainty containing centuries of sorrow.. This sounds so true and sad.Very honest and brilliant poem
2008-04-06


Century
So ... death was there all the time, behind the curtain, but it never jumped out and never haunted you. What does that make it? A spy ... a hunter ... or a friend?
This poem is like a walk through foggy mountains. You can do that a few times in a row and every time you'll see new things but it's a bit dangerous every time.
I especially loved the third stanza with all those little pieces taken from ancient history where death was 'popular' but translated into our modern world, where sometimes it's not 'en vogue' to even talk about it.
2008-04-06


lastromantichero The PoetBay support member heart!
Francesca this is a brilliant poem and such power it is worthy of an award it examines that most traumatic of experiences and touches the mind of those who have lost wiht its ordinary life is like that isnt it questions well done you are a brilliant poet

rgds mike
2008-04-06


Elle The PoetBay support member heart!
This is quite one of the best poems I have read lately - I think it just touched something inherent inside of me - excellent work, thank you for this

Elle x
2008-04-04


Rik The PoetBay support member heart!
Imaginative. Thought provoking. Writing of a quality i feel inept to comment on.
2008-04-04


Rob Graber
"People died over the phone": I find this a marvel of condensation in a generally remarkable poem. In some of your other work I have seen, you "hide too far away" (as Robert Frost put it) for my taste; but not here.
2008-04-04