Sunday, February 18, 2007
Narration: Discovering Life
By Ryan Pochedly 10-5-2005When my life
Ended, as yours undoubtedly will
Someday,
I found myself in the middle
Of a dimly lit auditorium.
I was alone, sitting
On a plush red seat, rows
Back from a vast movie
Screen, blank
White, this cinema,
Was missing the smell of popcorn
And hushed whispers.
The lights flickered, faded
And died, one by one.
A projector from the rear,
In a clanky discharge,
Rumbled, squeaked and spun its reels.
The screen crackled and flickered,
As a beacon of pale
Light sloped downward,
Casting my life upon its continuous
Surface.
I sat
In my current state watching
My movie, my production.
Unlike a Hollywood script,
It was uneventful. A series
Of repeating moments, meaningless
Clips of everyday life. I saw myself,
Over and over walking down
Sidewalks, across streets.
I witnessed the October leaves scraping
Pavement. And, instead of ignoring the way light
Attached to an object,
Through the panes of a window
In the afternoon
Sun, I saw for the first time
Its ever present beauty.
I fell in love again,
With a stranger in every scene.
I’d notice the way she’d
Nervously bite her lip.
Or how she walked dauntlessly
Through a strip mall unaware
That her shadow could
Cover a man’s sun for eternity.
I watched old baseball games
Recalling the worn out dugouts and sandy
Infields. I saw a ball hit to right
Field. The boy who couldn’t catch a fly
Was staring at the dandelions
As if he knew something
That we didn’t.
I relived it all. Every
Strand of nearly forgotten
Memories, so blameless
And fragile.
Labels: poems