Poetry Reading

The reading today went well. I didn’t feel too nervous and read well, at least Matthew thought so. I didn’t win any prizes and there were three. One of the poems that won I didn’t like but the other 2 were okay. A woman came up to me and said that my poem made her cry and she thought that it should have won. That made me feel good inside. That I touched someone that much. Matthew got teary eyed as well. One of the judges (there were 3) told me she really liked my poem and was rooting for it. I guess that it was hard for them to make the decision. There were 2 other GMU students in the contest, Kamau (another 1st year like me) and another guy who is 3rd year.

I got a new computer! It's an iMac desktop computer and I love it. My laptop was getting old, about 3 1/2 years old now so Matthew said I should upgrade. My computer is now faster than his! I still own the laptop though and do not plan on getting rid of it. It has sentimental value for me as it was a graduation gift from Matthew when I graduated Augustana. Anyway.

So here's the poem:

At the Holiday Inn

The room was crooked, somehow not a rectangle.
The bed seemed a wedge in space to small.
There was a chair my mother sat in, then my father.
We watched some cartoon on the TV.
We waited for my husband as he made arrangements
with the dead body. I sat on the bed after a bath
with matted hair. I made like I was okay.
But after the parents left we rocked hard
against black silence and the white ceiling,
misshapen, crushed us.
Some heavy burden, some guilt-like presence pushed
us to sleep.
I woke with wet pillow and hair so tangled,
I didn’t care.
It was Sunday. Our strength gone,
the insignificance of death in relation to it all
sinks in as children yelled in the halls—you see,
it was Sunday morning
and they were free.