Burst water pipe,
I never liked water.
Dig down
Clink clink
I stumble on a time capsule; its origins are unknown.
There is a lone photo inside
And a poem
I read the poem first.
“Dear…”
The rest of the top line has been smudged.
“I’m sorry. You were the light of my life, you gave me life as I gave you yours. I took it away. Maybe we’ll meet some other day, but not too soon.”
I unravel the faded photo.
There must have been a leak in the capsule.
A mother sits with her young daughter on a swing,
It seems familiar.
I didn’t keep many photos following… It was too hard.
They tell me it’s unhealthy to repress memories.
The water was shallow; I turned for only a brief moment
She was gone.
The poem should have read “Dear Margaret, my loving daughter.”
Time to fix the water pipe.
I never liked water.
Ominous. Gloomy. Dark.
LOVE IT!
Thanks, John 🙂
This was deep. A capsule better left alone. Sad poem but life is poetry and poetry is life. Loved it!
Thanks. As I’ve grown older I have steered away from ‘deeper’ poetry, but I tried to get some of it out.
Haunting and captivating. Right from the beginning I wondered at the line, “I never liked water” (what a strange thing, which life depends on, to not like). As the truth was revealed, it gave a sharp new meaning to the repeated phrase. I thought the whole path of the story was gracefully executed.
Thanks, Tessa!