Monday, June 15, 2009

Old Notebook Uncovered During Cleaning

I, who am so practical and mathy, sometimes paint pictures with words. If you wanted to, I suppose you could call it poetry. I'm not so sure about that.

Silence Doesn't Bother You

The fridge kicks on and we both look up from our plates.
I catch your eye before your gaze returns to you food and
your fork makes another round trip flight from
potatoes to
mouth
to potatoes to
mouth.
The silence which is killing me doesn't bother you.

I wonder if I am losing my mind.
I wonder if the fridge is broken again and stuck in the on phase of its cycle --
and then it stops --
leaving me cold,
but the silence doesn't bother you.

I repeat the word "wonder" in my mind and
I wonder if it's the only word in English that doesn't lose its meaning upon repetition.
I try another
another
another another another
Meaningless.
And still the silence doesn't bother you.

You chew each bite five times.
Two heavy chews, and then three fast ones.
Slow, slow, quick quick quick
Slow, slow, quick quick quick
Turn.
Look at me.
Down at my plate.
Back at me.
"You gonna eat that?"
I shrug.
The silence doesn't bother you.

3 comments:

Lemon Gloria said...

I love this, Alex.

OneN said...

You would hate me, the silence wouldn't bother me a bit...I would prefer it. I think I get why you and the one with all the n's are friends, you are both math geeks with a creative side - one an artist and one a wordsmith (we both know that would be YOU). I enjoy reading your stuff Al - you should write a children's book for the kids in your life.

Alex said...

Thanks, Lisa!

I don't know, OneN. For all I can remember, I might have been the silent one in the poem. I wrote it a long time ago, and I was dating a certified extrovert at the time. You didn't know me then. No one with any N's knew me then.