Toll Booth: Part I

by Poet on the Piano   Mar 10, 2013


You and I are alike, we have a pulse trying
and footprints guiding us forward.
We both have read about death, researched
the immeasurable forms at half past two a..m.
when we got the call that, yes, it's terminal,
and yes, you won't be able to close our eyes
to sleep for weeks on end....

We are standing at a lonesome toll booth.
There are no maps or road signs or welcoming
posts that mark what country we're in or why
we have suddenly appeared.

But the wind tells us the time
and the time isn't ours.

So we loiter like pigeons in a clumsy loveless city
with dirty breaths and unsure heartbeats.
It's just the two of us now, and though our eyes
scamper across the land we know is out there,
there is nothing else visible but the booth-
tall, no sight to it's roof, and one sliding glass
window facing our chests.

See, we have this stretch before us and we can't
move ahead, it's as if paralysis has found us,
and we are not alone.
To pass the question of time we read through each
other's mind on death, but never truly think about it
until these vast moments.

Are we missed? Am I like myself three months ago
when I would still go next door near twilight and act
like grandpa was living there....warm lights failing to
absorb the fact his life was already being packed up.

Are we still being wished upon to come back?
Are whispers mailed to our doorsteps that signify
we aren't completely obliterated?

Are we taken, in parts?
Maybe, you reply.
Maybe, I look at you back.

But in this unknown we don't have expression
and our tickets haven't been printed, just yet.

---
written 3/10/13 @ 5:39 pm.

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Latest Comments

  • 11 years ago

    by Tara Kay

    MaryAnne This was beautiful, totally breathtakingly gorgeous,

    I love the story and it's message, and how time goes so fast, and next week catches us unaware, how everything moves without slowing down, and the minute to do something awesome passes quicker than we know, and life and love, and people just slip in and out, and all those questions, all those chances, that aren't taken, left unanswered and the end approaches faster than we know.

    It's a strong, powerful, thought provoking write, that I love, that just blows my mind.

    xx

  • 11 years ago

    by Jenni Marie

    Ohhh this is gorgeous!

    Breathtakingly overwhelming but written so elegantly.

    I found this style to be a little different than what I'm used to from you, but I loved it!

    There's so many lines that really stand out and speak to me, and I can't choose which is the most impacting...because all of this is so incredibly strong with emotion and depth.

    "And the time isn't ours"

    This really made me think, because..is time ever really our own? We spend so much time with our personal commitments and life's little chores and, of course, we never know when our said time is going to end, we don't know when He will decide to take us..and this made me reflect on the previous poem I wrote about living instead of just existing. it made me want to grab the time I have and really make the most of it.

    I just reread as I was commenting and decided that this is my favourite:

    "Are we taken, in parts?
    Maybe, you reply.
    Maybe, I look at you back."

    It stands for so much, holds so much feeling, and allows me to picture two people debating and discussing something so incredibly important.

    "and our tickets haven't been printed, just yet."

    This brings me back to my earlier comment of we never know just when our time is up, and makes me reflective all over again.

    Nominated!

    I love this!

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