Read Poem: Charlie, by Aline Andrade

The essence of your trauma is still alive
Watching families fight
Some days I look at the corners and I find
things I don’t need anymore.
I stopped looking
Because they were not there when I needed them
Then I find things I never wanted
Shadows and stuff
But it feels like it’s all connected and it’s a puzzle that I am too foggy to build
Mask
Youth
Daughter
Dementia
Charlie Kaufman
A house
And something else
I already forgot
The dancing
That’s it
The spine stretching
in pain hoping
for a future that already didn’t come
The dancing stopped
at the beginning and no one asked for more
The people around and their noise
and their thoughts-
always invading my life
I never thought to share
What is it for?
After the sweat rolls and the car takes you home
to rest
And the bills are paid and the feeling of relief settles and you’re pretty content and happy with yourself, then you remember you have to go to bed ’cause tomorrow you gotta go back
and do it again.
And it’s good to have a schedule and some money coming in so it can go out the next month. It’s pretty good to be ahead and not behind.
No one wants to be behind.
And when you’re ahead what else could you want except just stay ahead, you know?
You can’t really ask for more.
That’s just life.
That and the feeling of infinity
When you dance and your spine stretches
like your body is the milky way expanding
that’s fine too.
What else could you ask for?

Author: poetryfest

Submit your Poetry to the Festival. Three Options: 1) To post. 2) To have performed by an actor 3) To be made into a film. View all posts by poetryfest