Wednesday 29 July 2009

don't forget to get my cigars




















Cemetery in Malvern by Doug Shaver

where have you led me
I don't see colours
green merges into browns
grays grow out of red

trees blur over my portrait
ghostly though I am.
a sideways mirror-
I like the macabre me

exhaust fumes
have marked headstones
as I am new corpse
mine is fairly clear

yet all this serenity
bores me to death
(oh I am already dead!)
come midnight, I come alive

hunting for new spirits
to feed on their souls
here in this cemetery
that's fairly easy

next time you visit me
don't get me flowers,
save too your precious tears
as your papa will die soon

"well, don't forget to get my cigars
and my new hat
and all those lawbooks
which helped me fleece people"

18 comments:

  1. Nice, very good memoirs of a corpse.

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  2. Hard one. Social and mystical. Especially I like the lines "yet all this serenity/bores me to death/(oh I am already dead!)/come midnight, I come alive".

    Best wishes
    Ralf

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  3. Neat take on this prompt!! :) Enjoyed reading this.

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  4. I like the twists and turns you achieve in this one.

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  5. you are on hell of an excellent spook...

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  6. Excellent!! I like how honest this one is- how the speaker says straight out "yet all this serenity bores me to death." And I love the echoing in the line "come midnight, I come alive."

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  7. Hello Gautami,

    I particularly like the first half of the poem, especially the words in the first two stanzas.

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  8. yet all this serenity
    bores me to death


    How Classical Greek: Better a slave and living than a prince in the underworld! as the dead Achilles told Odysseus.

    I like your comparison of new and old headstones' comparative accretions of exhaust fumes.

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  9. "green merges into browns
    grays grow out of red"

    Words to die for...

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  10. I love the idea of the serenity boring the dead speaker to death. Nice.

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  11. Ah-ha! Love your tone here! Like James, I also love the idea of serenity being boring to the dead speaker. Great take on the prompt...full of fun surprises.

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  12. A wow of a read - the last line is outstanding and joins the earlier lines in producing a vivid and ghostly memoir.

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  13. very nice.....being a painter especially liked green merging to brown and grays grow out of red.

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  14. I think we are the same in death as we were in life.

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  15. wow. I had to read it a couple times.

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  16. Love this line -- "I like the macabre me." Gorgeous!

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  17. My first time here and I am very humbled. you have such a wonderful spectrum. And this one is my fav in my 30 mins spent here. Hope to find more time and go through your poems.

    NAARYA

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