From Beginning To End



You want it to make sense

You want it to become clear
Your feigned self importance

No longer precious or dear
But the only one caring

And the one still in doubt

A mirrored reflection
Of what never comes out
The lunch breaks upon you

Again eating alone

Your steak is still raw

Chewed right to the bone
The banter around you

Seems innocent and yet
The shroud that surrounds you

Wards off and deflects

“You gain nothing by trying”
You gain nothing you say
As you begin crying
For those cast astray

That girl in the tall grass

That one in your arms
Went to be with another

When you bartered your charms

Her daughter who’s grown now
Some say looks like you

Could it be then you wonder

When the times were so few
You pay the cashier

And slowly walk out
This bill had been dear
More than you had allowed

With the bone in your pocket

You head back to your desk
As the cry of a mockingbird

Decries and behests

Your pen then runs dry
As you again start to write

On your left eye a sty
All vision in blight

Only then do you notice

Hanging pink and in front

And you know that your future

Now a dog that can’t hunt
So you walk to his office

And sit down in the chair

You look at him soulless

And try not to care
He explains “That he’s sorry”
That “The timing’s not right”
He says that you’re valued

But be gone by tonight

As you clean out your desk
A new feeling partakes
You look up to the ceiling

Knowing all that’s at stake

And that feeling is good
That feeling seems right

As the feeling then pushes

And the feeling alights
You decide now emboldened

To stop on the way home
At the house of that one
You left forever alone
You heard of divorce

And you wonder how bad
The damage it left her
Was it worse than you had
As you slow down your car
She stands in the yard
As you speed up your heart

She says ‘Directions’ how far
She does not recognize you
Have you changed all that much
She looks at you puzzled

As you long for her touch

And you drive away empty

As you drive away cold
And you drive away blackened

From your heart to your soul
But your path is now clear

Though you’ve no place to go
And those things that you’ve feared

Have now rightly been shown

As you walk in the kitchen

The door never had locked

Standing there and still smitten
The one you thought had forgot

“Was that you in the car earlier

Was that you, really you
I couldn’t believe it

Because I still love you, I do”
A reward wrapped in burlap

The priciest kind

Where if never rejected
You are never to find
So make just one promise

To then promise again
To be true to your feelings

 —from beginning to end

(Villanova Pennsylvania: February, 2014)
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Submitted by KurtPhilipBehm on July 09, 2017

Modified on March 05, 2023

2:33 min read
66

Quick analysis:

Scheme A BX BC D EDF G X GF XF X CHCH X IJ I XF J FB DBX X KX A LM LM N O J ON P N PQMX M KAC X XM X AR XEGX SJSTXX TFUX U Q XR XB XX G E X EX J FX FX V XVN XX X Q
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 2,548
Words 512
Stanzas 56
Stanza Lengths 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 2, 2, 1, 4, 1, 2, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 4, 1, 3, 1, 2, 1, 2, 4, 6, 4, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 3, 2, 1, 1

Kurt Philip Behm

Longtime writer with twelve books in publication. Three of them Poetry. : The Death Of The Playground : The Sword Of Ichiban : Searching For Crazy Horse : Darkening Sun : An Anthology Of Perception-Vol's 1 & 2 : After Midnight : Sammy And Bumpers : The Fall City Mandate : Revenge Along The War Trail : Death from The Sky more…

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