Talent Ambianced1

She Drowned

By Ambianced1 | 2008

A crowd had gathered in the quiet little town,
The news had spread the writer had drowned.
The people had compiled into a bantering shout
Until a quiet young lad asked “What’s this all about?”
A harsh toned man said “A woman has drowned.”
“How?” asked the lad and he slowly sat down.
“She drowned in a river she filled with her tears”
“You’re wrong there mister” someone else jeered.
“She was many things but alas not a quitter,
She drowned in the sea with her lungs full of glitter”.
Again another said, “You make no sense, ‘cause you haven’t any
She drowned in a wishing well with her pockets full of pennies”
Someone shouted “No! She wasn’t a fool;
She drowned in a web, got caught in her spool”.
“No” said another, “don’t be so silly
She drowned on the bank in the sea of tranquility”
A woman said “No! She had had a glass of wine.
She drowned from silence in her mask of pantomime.
Another said “NO, she drowned in a bed while taking a nap
Entangled in dreams with a dog on her lap”
“Crazy you are, she drowned in a book!
The words swallowed her up, just take a look!”
“Doubtful” said a woman who knew her best
“She drowned in feathers while fluffing her nest”
Again one says “No, that isn’t quite right.
She drowned in the darkness, swallowed up by the night”.
“She drowned in asphalt, she couldn’t survive
She drowned in the fear of having to drive”
“No” One said, "That sounds too pretty,
She drowned in a storm of poodles and kitties”.
“It didn’t rain”, quarrelled a man,
Another false statement! The Truth I demand!”
“Well” said the boy, who still had sat there
“Is that not her there brushing her hair?”
The town people turned and saw her look fine
They rushed to her side, their stories refined.
“We heard you had drowned” said a tentative soul
“We heard you had shoveled and drowned in a hole”
“Alas, I did drown” I told them “You’re right.”
“But it wasn’t by asphalt, rain or by night.
It wasn’t any of the ways you think I struggled for air
It wasn’t the weight of the words that I share
I drowned in the works of Frost and of Poe
Of Shakespeare, King Solomon, Twain, and Thoreau
I drowned in the knowledge that once they were me
A grappling writer who’s been given a key
A key that holds promise, charity and hope
A promise I thought would keep me afloat
I drowned in a river without tying my lines
I drowned and came up dozens of times”.

All the town left me, alone to sit there
To contemplate life with a breath of fresh air.
They left me to wonder to think and revive
Drowning is hard work and yet harder to survive.