the window is a jagged edge

abigfatcanofworms Uncategorized February 22, 2023 1 Minute

Written in response to the below image from Sunday Muse #207

Saturday among the rocks
we don’t cry
we don’t clean

just hold our faces
gently 
in the falling
in the keening

a peeled sky 

we watch 
the gramophone turn 
soaking pallid air 
with bandages 

the window
is a jagged edge
holding us in

every day
another can opener
screeches through the city

spilling red

A man listening to a gramophone in what’s left of his bombed-out bedroom in Aleppo, Syria. Photography by Joseph Eid

Published by abigfatcanofworms

We all walk in the dark. But if we hold hands, perhaps the dark won't be as scary. View all posts by abigfatcanofworms

Published February 22, 2023

10 thoughts on “the window is a jagged edge”

johnlmalone says:

February 23, 2023 at 7:57 am

a rivetting vignette after a bombing; ‘a peeled sky’ and ‘another can opener’ are effectively terrifying; you’ve captured the horror well; and then the calm, stoic dignity of the man listening to his gramophone; well done —

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1. abigfatcanofworms says:
  
  February 23, 2023 at 9:12 am
  
  Thanks so much, John. It’s hard to know whether it’s respectful or not to pretend I can imagine the horror and grief of a situation like that. Am I appropriating a story without really understanding it?
  
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  1. johnlmalone says:
    
    February 23, 2023 at 9:19 am
    
    I don’t think so; I never thought that; you were responding to the images and the bombing horrors captured in news reports; I think the poem is respectful —
    
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  2. abigfatcanofworms says:
    
    February 23, 2023 at 10:09 am
    
    Thanks John. I appreciate that
    
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Misky says:

February 23, 2023 at 9:13 am

Beautifully and sensitively written.

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1. abigfatcanofworms says:
  
  February 23, 2023 at 10:21 am
  
  Thank you Misky.
  
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K. Hartless says:

February 23, 2023 at 1:41 pm

Enhances the image beautifully, worms.

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1. abigfatcanofworms says:
  
  February 23, 2023 at 2:06 pm
  
  Thanks so much, K
  
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The Sicilian Storyteller says:

February 23, 2023 at 11:48 pm

So sad yet so very lovely.

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1. abigfatcanofworms says:
  
  February 24, 2023 at 3:06 pm
  
  ❤
  
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