Malcolm
You sat there with your picture
Crude drawing
Young boy
I thought I could save you
with words
We were worlds apart
when you showed me what you prized
You with your lone illustration
All shared vacation dreams
Some wanted to take music
others, only family
An ice breaker
A classroom assignment
Just share your things
What would you take on vacation
What would you pack
if you might never come back
I asked if it was a gun
You said No
that ain't no gun
It's my Glock
We locked eyes - in my confusion
I remember
You would just take your gun
I asked
My Glock - you corrected
No laughter from others
They knew you
I nodded and let it be
Malcolm
You were the hardest of them all
I thought I could save you with my words
I heard from a friend
It went badly for you
Malcolm, I thought I could save you with words
Oops! My comment landed in the response box below. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteHere it is again:
Wow! This is brilliant! I like the internal rhyme and what the poem has to say about lost innocence and the struggle to reach the ones losing it. Excellent!
Dear Kat,
ReplyDeleteThank you so very much for your kind input on my poem. I just found your blog and have thoroughly enjoyed the imagery you capture in your poems. I guess I love poems that tell a story. Malcolm was a real boy that needed much more than my words. I felt I had to capture this experience.
Best regards,
H.H.
I don't know you, but you must be a kind and sensitive soul.
ReplyDeleteA lovely write...sad but true and inspiring...because we want to save all the children but we can't. Thank you for trying to inspire him with your words.
ReplyDelete