Poetry / I'll Make Resolutions

I'll Make Resolutions

This New Year's Eve,
I'm warm in a familiar room with people I love.
We are together.
They don't know that a piece of me is missing,
though it seems I should look like an amputee.
Thank God they don't have x-ray vision.
Is it my heart that's missing--my mind, my soul?

Confetti will collect in that void
when the clock creeps forward.
In the rowdy cheers, the "Happy New Years"
will echo in the cavern I disguise--
will rattle around this emptiness
that stifles like a winter coat in August.
How can I shoulder this weight another year?
I can't be the curator of this fantasy indefinitely
…can I?

At the naissance of another year,
I'll be sensible with myself;
I'll make resolutions:

I refuse to yearn for your voice.
I won't be disappointed
when I awake without your warmth.
I will allow reason to reign over passion.
(But that would be sanity--
am I prepared for that?)
My hands will not long to be in your hair.
I'll put a padlock on my imagination:
No more scenarios of you and me.
This darkness will not eclipse the sun.
The sight of you will not cause choirs to resound.
I will appreciate your beauty
without needing to possess it.

Should old acquaintance be forgot?
It cannot.

January, 2009

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Reviews

January 05, 2009

jadedpoet

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
353	77.3% (75 votes)	26.0%

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Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
40	M	Norcross, GA	November 18

jadedpoet reviewed Version 2 - Read 100% of the Item

Hi there,

I love the push- pull effect this piece creates for the reader. You paint such a clear picture with your words. Like a piece of you, so obvious only to you that you feel like a visual amputee. Very good! I don’t want to make light of this piece for I can see there is much mental torment entangled all throughout it. You covey a very powerful mental torture that has possessed your deepest parts of your soul, only to find yourself forced to make these weakening resolutions. Like a willow branch weighed down with ice and snow, just waiting to break. “Should (an) old acquaintance be forgot?” Once again, your ability to convey such clear emotional depth has succeeded. me…

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January 07, 2009

by mckinleycooper

No. of Reviews	Overall Quality	Comment Followup
80	91.1% (56 votes)	45.5%

Age	Gender	Location	Last Login
31	F	Birmingham, AL	February 16

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A very talented singer/songwriter I love has a line in a song: ”...like a willow, I can bend…”
That image sums up so well the pressure and torment in this poem that used to be a wonderful ache.
So glad you read this one, and that the amputee imagery wasn’t lost—I never have to worry with you, though…