Thursday, April 1, 2010

GROUND ZERO


My body hangs suspended in air. Like a tiny leaf nestled on the wind. I float against the sun and blue of the sky. My eyes see everything and nothing as I linger with infinity. Human forms below stand motionless. Like steel statues pinned to the earth. No sound do I hear. Not a thing do I feel, but peace.

Faces reach out to me with their eyes. Guiding me, caressing me. The world stops in a gasp....breathless and still. "Where Oh Lord is this place?" I mutter....
no answer... The hills stand in awe of the moment. Moaning in unison at the spectacle before them... Birds watch with tears frozen in their eyes....

I drift slightly in the breeze and feel myself lose the air. I grab as it speeds away. The green of the earth shifts on the horizon and I slip into free fall. My mind races against the wind now pelting my face. The black steel of my home whispering as I careen downward.

Gone is the safety of my perch. Gone now my weightless body on the breeze. The human forms below in a frenzy as they jerk themselves awake. "Where is ground zero?"

I feel cold heavy air crashing against me as I race toward the dark bottom. Sadness fills my eyes. The gasp of an illogical conclusion. The calamity of it. The utter necessity of it..... "Why am I here? Why have I come to this?"

My thoughts end as I hit hard against the roof. My legs twist like paperclips beneath the weight of my body. My teeth shatter in my mouth along with my feet inside my boots. I cannot breath. I am alive... I fight to remain conscious. Struggle to gauge the extent of the damage...

Months later I lay in a hospital bed staring at the casts on my feet and legs.....No one came to see me but my mother....no one called or sent a card..... no one.....for months...... I could still hear the voices........I care about you Bobby...I care so much......

Bobby Jameson Mar 25, 2010




5 comments:

  1. I'm not sure what I said in the lost comment. I wondered why Ground Zero was not in poetic form, because it's images are graphically poetic. And I don't know what I meant by 'determined' except nothing seems to stop you from pouring it all out, song after song and poem after poem. Your imagery is excellent when words can convey them without music.

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  2. Nice to tragic graphic fall from peaceful to lonesome hospital. "Folded paperclips" transition 'held the image' of the injuries together... I totally empathize with the feeling of estrangement almost everyone ("thanks Mom") for a lengthy rehabilitation in hospital. I have spent 2-1/2 months isolated in a hospital (from near-death MRSA)and I had no one come by but my wife. She was allowed a total of 12 hours spread between 2 separate nights between the 2-1/2 months. (sleeping on a floor-cot). Also no cards but 2 calls from mother...
    "Ground Zero" is a totally appropriate title and I wish you peace from the memory. Thank you for your resillience to bring this experience to us.

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  3. The Only Justice is Poetry . . .

    see me ... apb


    most of all... merry christmas 2011ad

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  4. WELL DONE Mr. Jameson

    2,011ad Christmas Greetings.

    apb see me

    ReplyDelete