Coming in from planting,
Mattock ringing through the valley,
Eyes bright, I only felt
you there — a fly’s buzz, a curtain
breathing still. When they come,
to empty my room they’ll find—
a curled leaf, the broken pane,
ashtray unemptied and wind.
No lined-up packets,
two-thread sown, seventeen-hundred
seventy-five verses
which when opened burned from then to
this now — with search engines and chat,
and thousands of matches,
— feeling for the pulse — the beat goes
ta dum, while some say no.
Your breath is still warm in my ear
— the fly’s buzz, the soldered eye
and eternity’s dark horses,
coming ever onward.
Image: Wollongong City Beach NSW. You know when something itches at you…this homage to the great Emily Dickinson – from January 2000 and posted also for Dverse open link night – where Grace is hosting.
Peter Frankis writes 
This:
“I only felt
you there — a fly’s buzz, a curtain
breathing”
the third stanza,
and the last three lines
are my favorite sections.
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Thanks Cara.
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Wow.. that has so much atmosphere and passion. Enjoyed your poem.
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I love the sense of afterwards. The emptiness where you go deep into what’s not there… just a void after two people having left on separate journeys
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I think Emily would have liked this. Enjoyed the there/not there sense and I think you captured something of her in that. Nice.
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This is unbelievably potent!💞 Especially like; “Your breath is still warm in my ear — the fly’s buzz, the soldered eye and eternity’s dark horses, coming ever onward.”💞
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Thanks Sanaa.
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A beautiful ode to Emily Peter, I think she would have liked it too. The atmosphere feels authentic, I especially love ‘I only felt
you there — a fly’s buzz, a curtain
breathing still. When they come,
to empty my room they’ll find—
a curled leaf, the broken pane,
ashtray unemptied and wind.’
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Thank you so much.
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Nice remembrance if Emily Dickinson.
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Beautiful ode to Emily ~ My favorite is the second stanza ~
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Thanks Grace, glad you liked it.
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Ditto, Peter. Love the visuals and sounds, and for me it has a kind of universal atmospheric–something hot and dry and harsh in the spaces between the objects. Er, okay, I don’t know what I’m talking about, so I’m stopping now. 😸
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Yes, the space left behind. Absence. Nice.
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I like the mattock ringing.
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Thanks Cathy, it’s my favourite line too.
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I’ve never heard it, but your line made me think that I might have!
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