We hung our memories on the racks
and laced our fingers behind our backs
while we wandered the streets
watching them shake their heads,
“Their aching made them weep.”
Our aching made us weep.
Our aching made us weak.
We spat coal from our lungs
and quenched our thirst with white ash.
Oh, didn’t you hear?
We fought our war in Padua
while they buried their heads in the sand.
Wrinkled necks like weathered leather,
they told us, “You’ll be better.”
We could.
Do.
Better.
On the streets, littered gold
we picked our roses without the thorns
and sang to high heaven.
We marched, we marched.
We marched down the road.
We stumbled and fell,
but didn’t rest our weary bones.
Our soles blistered and cracked,
the balm we took announced our woes.
At the gates we stood waiting
for our demons to be purged
and from our lips our cry rang out,
“They would pray for the poor.”
They would pray for us,
the poor.
Wow…just wow…I’ll be reading this many times, savoring the beautiful aching. xo
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Thanks, Dusty. Glad to know you liked it 🙂
xoxo
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I loooved it. 🙂
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Haha, stop it. You’re embarrassing me.
Hope you’re doing well, though.
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I am, thanks. Taking time off from the blog except for you’re posts.
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I completely understand. I pretty much did the same thing, but then I realized I so desperately wanted to be back…so…*waves magic wand*…Ta-dah! 😉
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God! “Your”. Where’s my Xanax.
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Lol 😉
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This is really amazing. I am watching a documentary about WWII and Padua was one of the cities mentioned. It’s good to read your words again. Take care.
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Thank you, Red. I hope it’s enlightening.
PS: I don’t really know a lot about Padua. Guilty 😦
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Me either. There is a wonderful documentary on Netflix about the Italians that helped the Jews. I getting educated about it.
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I guess I’ll have to look for it then 🙂
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p.s. if you didn’t know this is Rose Red, I’ve been using my pen name now.
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Haha, I saw that for the first time on my reader today. When did you change it? Anyway, I think it’s just as lovely as the old one 🙂
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Thank you 🙂 most call me Rose anyway. I changed it just a few weeks ago.
https://geletilari.wordpress.com/2015/07/12/a-rose-by-any-other-name/
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Well written. I love the pacing. A powerful poem.
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Thank you so much, Rob! Really glad to hear you liked it!
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