Decrepit.

by Poet on the Piano   Jan 23, 2016


It beckons me once more...
but I am no longer the joyful child
it smiled upon.

Its voice is now demolished.
Constructed in mahogany,
devoid of song -
no more light from sun
or stained glass windows
or renewed hearts.

I hugged its smooth side often,
laid upon it as I tried to relax
during the hardest days
where winter entered my soul
and wouldn't move on.

I can't count the number of days
where I felt the amount of spines
twisting and hearts breaking
on that old wooden pew,
the touches of the wounded.

I promised a million tomorrows, here.
I spoke of unwritten tragedies, here.

I summoned him, here.
I told him I needed him, here.

The only sounds that echo now
are dusty memories and duets
of ghosts that can't bury their past.
This church is testimony
to the love prayed for,
vowed, abandoned...

I lean once more against
its sturdy back, aching
to hear another story.

But you never loved me, here.
You never held me, here.

And I can't keep returning
to a storm that's already passed on.

-
Written for Maple's Contest. Prompt: church pew.

    report violation
2


Did You Like This Poem?

Latest Comments

  • 8 years ago

    by Daisy if you do

    These two stanzas speak volumes on the prompt chosen. Imagery was so intense that it brought me back to my childhood days of going to church. All the memories are as vivid now as then. I grew up in a Baptist church while my mom was Pentecostal Holiness and Dad didn't even bother to go to church, because he felt there were more hypocrites there and he'd just do his worshipping from home. I loved this poem and thought it was my favorite amongst the entries perhaps because it's most relatable. Can't wait to find out who the writer is when posted on their account.

    "Its voice is now demolished.
    Constructed in mahogany,
    devoid of song -
    no more light from sun
    or stained glass windows
    or renewed hearts."
    ^^^
    This stanza has so much power because it actually makes you think of the construction of the pew and Windows way before the church was formed. The ending line in the stanza about "renewed hearts" and the fact that there are no longer testimonies, songs, prayer or baptisms gives a heartbreaking reality to forlorn religion

    "The only sounds that echo now
    are dusty memories and duets
    of ghosts that can't bury their past.
    This church is testimony
    to the love prayed for,Â
    vowed, abandoned..."

    ^^^
    This stanza gives hope that there were lives "saved" through process of vows, prayers and love. Then with one single last word "abandoned" comes right back and snatches those previous hopes away. The eerie thought of ghosts whom can't bury their past gives a reason to assume that members and guests of the church whom were prayed for, that the prayers weren't enough and it was effortless attempts to save their soul.

More Poems By Poet on the Piano