Drums
John Kucera 1981 (Pennsylvania)
Drums
How many elegies are enough—
the tone, the muffled drums,
the heart pressed to dirt.
The leaves, having ridden
the grass so long lies mulched
and mounded over the beds.
The guy down the block
who hasn’t spoken to
me in more than twenty years, said
his brother has pancreatic cancer
tumors everywhere. Holding out
his hand he said Parkinson’s.
The tumors start when it gets cold
Gale warnings and snow.
He stands at his mailbox
in shorts and a t-shirt, socks,
slippers. He’d watched the
hearse
carry off the old man across the street.
He guesses he’ll be next.
About this poem
It is about passing over after our time in this world has expired.
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Written on February 16, 2023
Submitted on February 16, 2023
Modified on April 30, 2023
- 34 sec read
- 48 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | XAX XXX XXX XXA XXB BXX XX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 583 |
Words | 116 |
Stanzas | 7 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2 |
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"Drums" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/151775/drums>.
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