The
lights are out --
the
trip-switch has tripped
taken
out the walls
the
furniture and known corners
neatly
placed stool and shoe
just
where the wide-eyed blindness
prompts
foot-fall ;
the
candle-lit re-decoration
repaints
household
and
a strange after-smell
lifts
me from floor and stupor,
but
Tutu knows --
the
square-inches of his kingdom
are
not yielded in light or shade
or
the pitch-black of human oversight –
and
so I scramble through scrambled memory
into
moonlight familiarities,
yearn
for a family gone a-visiting
scatter
thoughts like seed
on
garden, leaf and treetop
discharge
insecurities into rain-pools
remember
a girl and a doll,
a
book of verse and a short story
fingertips
and the principle of gravity,
pat
Tutu on his head
and retire. LEAVE A COMMENT
Familiar and painful memories! Unfortunately 'Tutu' being black was a tripping-point as well!
ReplyDeleteTutu: pet dog, mongrel, mostly black with some white patches.
ReplyDeleteOur 'Tutu" was also a mongrel but with aristocratic connections!
ReplyDeleteBlack-no patches, named Buster. In Nawala, late 1960's, black-outs were the rule rather than the exception- so tripping and falling were painfully common.
This one is so poignant - love it.
ReplyDelete