Poem-A-Day: Waiting for Catharsis

Waiting for Catharsis

Roethke said that in a dark time, 

the eye begins to see.

There are no stars gleaming

under the Milky Way tonight.

Two days ago we buried you.

Under the roots of a magnolia tree,

your still white body takes hold;

Plans painstakingly laid for the decline and fall

of my southern civilization.

I weep for the loss of you.

For a  boy who never knew me

for a father crumbling away

for a grandfather gone.

For it all.

My demons have come to a head.

They are frothing, screaming,

Tearing away at the walls I have built

to hide them for so long.

I am stalled, stalled.

These are crises the mind cannot solve,

and my heart, torn to pieces,

is unreliable.

I feel the shadow of Death lie weary over me;

a dark arm reaching to sweep all into the forgiving sea

Leaving behind only the wasteland

the left-behind stasis

in the sunlight of reality.

This poem is a companion piece to The Gathering. Read it here.