prompt 23 hour 23
Arthur
I don’t remember when he first came to talk to me
in mirrors,
or when we would play cards
or at dinner time
when I would beg my mom to set him a place at table
so he could eat with us
and he was always hungry
and lonely.
I would call him on my red play phone
and we would talk for hours and hours
about his day
and the adventures he would get up to,
and he must have gotten up to some great adventures!
over forty years later I met him again
in a Great War Cemetery in France
(Sunken Road Cemetery),
buried near a lad with my daughter’s middle name,
so I know he was “real.”
Arthur was my relative…
never really imaginary,
just never really visible to anyone else but me.
© r. l. elke
This is amazing…I love this. I love the use of “my daughter’s middle name”; love the color of the play phone; love that you give the name of the cemetery in a parenthetical; just so much excellence going on here…
Thank you, very much, Sandy! The poem wrote itself by that point so I am so grateful for the kind words and that the piece resonated with you.
This gave me chills (fully body!). It was so well written. The use of details about the phone and the mirror and the name were so meaningful, so well done. 100% vote for this to be one of the ones you submit to the anthology.
thank you so much! that means so much! i love that this poem has resonated with so many people. this really happened! he even came to me in a hotel room in Arras, while i was falling asleep and asked me to find him. i did the next day. it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life…and I have had a few of these kinds of experiences.
Wow! you gave me chills in my entire body. I was just sharing on the phone abut a poetry class where the instructor talked about writing a poem with a twist. I tried but could never. Then, one of the poems I did Prompt 17, titled the Little Red Box has a twist which I continue to read and I can’t believe the end myself. Yours is the same.. Awesome!!!!
thank you so much for your kind words! I am going to check our your prompt 17 for sure!