Conversation among the Ruins, 1927

–after the painting by Giorgio de Chirico

The sky is clearing now.
but it was their storm with
her slashes of lightening
answered by his roaring
voice of thunder that tore
their fragile world apart.

Still, she tries to explain who
she is bt he’ll have none of it.
“You’re no daughter of mine,”
he growls. “I am who I am,”
her voice flickering like a bulb
that has lost the will to light.

Then the years become the
silent distance of their lives,
each looking at a different ocean,
yet each wondering: if those doors
were still open, could they go back
into the wreckage of that room and talk.

Doug Stone lives in Albany, Oregon. He has written two chapbooks, The Season of Distress and Clarity (Finishing Line), The Moon’s Soul Shimmering on the Water (CreateSpace), and a poetry collection, Sitting in Powell’s Watching Burnside Dissolve in Rain (The Poetry Box).

Willawaw Journal

Share
Published by
Willawaw Journal

Recent Posts

Gary Lark

Jive I fly between galaxies sun to sun on a trapezoid kite, a song of…

24 minutes ago

Phyllis Mannan

Surrounded by Poppies --after Paula Modersohn-Becker, “Old Poorhouse Woman with a Glass Bottle,” Oil on…

38 minutes ago

Rebecca Martin

William Turner (after Steam Boat in a Snow Storm, 1812) First boat and sea and…

48 minutes ago

Richard L. Matta

Dawn Patrol Crack, crack go eggs on the skillet. Now and then a small streak…

57 minutes ago

Edward Miller

Postcard from Across the Room You’re envious of my travels, No doubt. That’s understandable— The…

2 hours ago