Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Next In Line

A drop of dew
slides off
the down-turned,
shiny back
of a Holly leaf,
to the slick surface
of the one below.
It, too,
hangs at an incline,
so down it goes again.
There’s nothing
beneath the last,
it’ll be a fait accompli,
face first into the black,
grainy surface,
where a thousand generations
have gone before.
No whimpers,
crying,
begging,
nothing audible
as it kisses death’s door.

(all rights reserved Pat Paulk 2006)

11 comments:

eric l houck jr said...

a dew-drop world! excellent pat. (and i can't even ditto anybody since i'm commenting first . . .)

Anonymous said...

Sometimes the most powerful messages are most effective when cloaked in simplest words. You didn't disappoint. Well done!

Oh yeah - and I agree with Eric.:)

polona said...

beautiful, pat!

somehow reminds me of the Issa's haiku (translated by David Lanoue):

it's a dewdrop world
surely it is...
yes... but...

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

This is funny! Go to my blog and look at the 2nd poem that I put on (August 2005) It's a poem I wrote 23 years ago when I was in high school-- :)
yours just made me think of it ---

Pat Paulk said...

Eric, at least this time somebody we know can actually agree with you! Thanks!

AA, a.k.a., "somebody we know", thanks!

Polona, it is that! Thank you!!

Andrew, man this is eerieeeeeeee!!!!

steve said...

something very fundamental about the drop making its way down to a kind of ending place, here being the next one and it is us in a way that we're maybe not quite ready to look at directly. Have to agree with you on the eerie!

floots said...

a man's gotta dew what a man's gotta dew

this is a beautiful piece which says a great deal
thank you

Pris said...

I love the way you write about things the rest of us often take for granted. Lovely piece here!

Pat Paulk said...

Steve, are we ever? Thanks!

Floots, yes we dew!! Thank you!

Pris, that's probably because I have such an extraordinarily boring life!! Thank you!!

Anonymous said...

beautiful...You do good work..You take the simplest thing, and turn into something that makes you think.

Sue hardy-Dawson said...

In the scheme of things as each generation makes way for the next it what we do wait in line for the kiss of death