leaning towards the laptop screen,
eyes fixated at the ensuing horror,
of the gory scenes of a eunuch,
going after to kill a pious prostitute,
I trembled as my mobile began to ring,
(it was a song by Enrique, I guess),
fingering the touch pad, pausing the scene,
at the view of the stringent struggles,
of the woman in clothes torn, running,
escaping through a tunnel of dead bodies,
(the previous preys of the animal),
I handled the device in my hands to find
an unknown number printed on the screen,
I received the call, my ears quivering,
to know who the person was, on the other side,
it was a classmate and I sighed in relief,
but my expressions changed in an instant,
she was breathing hard, cry of a grievous mutt,
“What… What… Are you alright?”
her voice was drenched in teary sadness,
“HA, she is no more. She is no more…”
(she divulged the name of the deceased),
it was silence; I could hear my heart pounding,
we both were silent in meditation,
hearing the nothingness of the network lines,
“It is okay. Don’t worry. It is okay.”
it was I, who dared to end
the reverent pain of the moment,
“Don’t worry. It is going to be alright.”
(what was going to be alright!?)
after disconnecting the call,
I went back to the movie as
the boisterous burly man-woman,
murdered the captured girl,
who had survived for so long,
I was watching it but I was not,
a part of me died, a new part attached,
I have come to accept her demise,
a lost friend who I doubt was ever my friend,
(it does not matter at all, anymore),
but I am not yet able to believe it
.
* Well, it is a true story… August’ 11.
** Written in consideration of dVerse Meeting the Bar.
The paralell between the murder on the screen and the phone call is chilling.. but even more chilling is the end… a dead friend whos was never your friend.. it touch the fact that afterwards a dead person only have friends… a strange phenomena really…
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Wow, so devastating — both life and movies. And I have had the experience of having death of an acquaintance affect me deeply too.
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I felt trapped within the moment as I read this . . . harrowing moment onscreen and off.
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HA, it’s perfect. The dual scenes unfolding, the confusion, the honesty of emotion. To me it felt like the two were interwoven. Definitely images that speaks of death and a response to it on several layers. Thank you.
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This reminds me like out of a movie. Chilling! and very scary thing to happen, even on the internet.
You’ve gripped us with eerie images of real life true stories.
Excellent poem my friend.
P.S I’ve posted a new poem yesterday if you want to check it out. 🙂
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nice…those moments…and the fact that we can remember exactly what we were doing in them…i feel that numb detachment in the end as well….coming to terms each in our own way with such a loss….
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It’s hard to refocus after hearing such news… even if we did not know the person too well, it still bites.
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This is so good–laying out the scene, the emotions, the confusion, and those last killer lines. Excellent work!
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What you capture is the land of the real/surreal we all seem to live in. This is no “village”. This is a cyber world of transmitters and receivers, of unknown inanimate friends mixed together with real-life face-known muscle and sinew people with kitchens and bathrooms. We get news of both and feel the loss deeply but incompletely when one dies. This subject is well explored here and is very fresh!
http://beachanny.blogspot.com/2013/09/we-were-ones.html#comment-form
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Some moments of deep ponder….. It really got me trapped
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Oh, this is so chilling. It is hard to hear that someone one had known had died. It shakes up your world really, whenever it happens. I remember the first time it happened to me….when an old college roommate had died. It makes one realize that death is REAL when it is a peer, not someone much older.
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Yes, it is difficult to understand for the first time. The thing was that she was just 16. This event led me to believe that death will come for all of us; it wouldn’t mind the ages or anything like that. And since then, it has become a topic for me to discuss, rather than something taboo and fearful.
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Yes. I lost a peer last summer, it was devastating. This was so powerful. Excellent, you have grown so much as a writer in the almost year I have known you. x
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We use the term friend very loosely. Most of us have acquaintances. I like it that someone else recognises this. It is hard to come to terms with death. The enormity of it is hard to digest.Excellent poem
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I so admire all of you who can do it: make poetry out of what is ostensibly narrative. If I do that, it sounds very pedestrian. That contrast between real life and on-screen is so well done.
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Well that sat me back in my chair to read again, and consider the layers you have written here. Well done!
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It’s strange how we feel driven to tell people how ‘everything is going to be alright’, as if that can be true in extreme moments of grief or shock. Does the comforting actually work – for the giver or the receiver?
I like how you show that you carried on watching the film. Isn’t that what we do – carry on? There is more in here – I’ll be reading it more than once!
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Kept me gripped and entranced
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