A poem on grief

This poem is in response to Day 10 of the NaPoWriMo challenge asking us to write a meditation on grief inspired by Geofrrey Brock's poem Goodbye using it as a format to structure our very own. Here's an attempt.

It's the thick of winter, early morning,
Dreamy white tufts of fog, nip in the air,
as you call your kindergarten child outside
sitting upright on the scooter, its engine roaring

When are you leaving?
You ask me, a new matrimonial ad in hand, looking worried,
When are you leaving?
You ask me, a week after I am home visiting, shelling peas,

I grapple with an ennui, unexperienced, unexplainable
As a fire rages, within outside, ferocious, intense,
Are you untethered or is it us, like the earth from the sky?
Or is it that we are coming back to each other like we always have?

@Shalini Gupta

IT

 

It startles me in a millisecond

making a sudden landing

as I throw away the book

I am reading

far away in the room

like a carefree frisbee

Disgruntled at it

my heart starts racing

I take baby steps

with the stealth of a cat

surreptitious 

and grab a ruler

Carefully, I turn the book

which is upside down

Then revealing

a wide-eyed, taupe thing

that flits its tail

intently looking at me

I grunt and groan and almost cuss it

for disturbing my Sunday

As it quickly 

heads for cover 

Under my bed

perhaps scared

I pick up my book

gingerly 

and go about my days business

because I also do not want 

to be completely 

free today

This post is written in response to the writing prompt for today on occasion of the National Poetry Writing Month in the U.K. 

It says "write a poem in which you talk about disliking something – particularly something utterly innocuous" Be over the top! Be a bit silly and overdramatic.

Can you spot the It here? Let me know in the comments.