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Umbrella-less


JoelJosol

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When I have walked this long, this far, in my life
I was like testing a string attached to mom
to see how far the string goes before it breaks and anxiety 
like a sudden downpour caught me umbrella-less,
in a street full of cars,

with strangers rushing to find shelter from the rain,
and I can't see my mom anywhere, anymore in the crowd,
with an empty pocket, not even a centavo of a coin
and the tension made me hungry and cold.

I have walked farther in this life mommy-less
resigned to get wet in the rain for days I am umbrella-less
with no space in the sidewalk to find shelter for myself
I just have to be wiser not be sucked into some hole
without a string to life to keep me from drifting farther

and be plucked out from deep waters life-less, umbrella-less.
An umbrella once kept a girl alive, or so I heard,
because she held on to it while falling into a man-made hole. 
I should have known better than be umbrella-less.

It is the next best thing when everything else,
everyone else do not have strings attached.

NOTE: Glad to be able to share something after a long while with the workload lighting up a bit.

"Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach

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Joel, this is beautifully worded. You do a wonderful job showing.

I love the recurring theme of umbrella-less and how the speaker is honest about his condition, how he perceives it:

On ‎10‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 10:14 PM, JoelJosol said:

… I should have known better than be umbrella-less.

I say perceives it, because as an objective reader with empathy I can see a bigger picture, how this condition might not be entirely (or at all) his fault.

I love this poem.

Tony

Here is a link to an index of my works on this site: tonyv's Member Archive topic

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Hi Tony. Thanks for the read and insight.  I am glad that you caught the repetition. I like the music of the "l"'s :-)

"Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach

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Hi Joel,   So happy to see you back.  I have always loved how lyrical your poems are even when the anxiety of being out there without any cover.   Like Tony I too liked the repetition, it flowed in and out.   Nice.

~~Tink

~~ © ~~ Poems by Judi Van Gorder ~~

For permission to use this work you can write to Tinker1111@icloud.com

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Hi guys, thanks for the read. I am glad that the structure worked.

"Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach

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like a sudden downpour...

in a street full of cars

with an empty pocket, not even a centavo of a coin

A poet once said there were "no ideas but in things". The imagery helped to carry me away.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks dcmarti1 for picking up the imagery.

"Words are not things, and yet they are not non-things either." - Ann Lauterbach

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