The Kite
Friday Writings #15: "After" Another
“...re-read a favourite piece of writing, which may be poetry or prose, allow yourself to be inspired by it and share the results with us. We would also like to know, please, ‘after’ whom, or ‘after reading’ what – even if you are working in prose...”*
You’ve slipped from my memory
like a kite with a broken string,
I was left holding on to nothing.
I watched as the kite
rose higher,
higher,
higher still.
Growing ever
smaller,
smaller,
smaller yet.
A speck of coral,
fading into the vast summer sky,
until even that was gone.
If I squint my eyes just so,
I imagine I can see you still.
But, like the kite,
your memory is just out of reach.
©2022 Lisa Smith Nelson. All Rights Reserved
* Inspired by A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote. I've referred to this short story in the past, and probably will refer to it again. My favorite passage is at the end, when the story moves into the current day of the narrator. SPOILER! The last paragraph, in part, reads, "...severing from me an irreplaceable part of myself, letting it loose like a kite on a broken string. That is why, walking across a school campus on this particular December morning, I keep searching the sky. As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying toward heaven."
#fridaywritings #poetsandstorytellersunited #freeversepoetry
Oh, now I'll have to find and read that story. (I like his writing very much, but haven't discovered that one before.) The ending you quote is beautiful. Your poem is absolutely gorgeous too, and can stand well on its own. Yet it is even more special to know the source. Thanks for playing!
ReplyDeleteThank you. A Christmas Memory may be my favorite piece of writing ever. I can't read that ending without tears. I added a spoiler alert, which I didn't think of until you posted this. Sorry for putting the ending, although, out of context it doesn't give anything away.
DeleteOh, this is gorgeous and expresses the quote so well. Now I want to go back and reread the book.
ReplyDeleteThank you. Oh, do read the story again! And again, and again!
DeleteWow! Wonderfully inspired. Happy Friday
ReplyDeleteMuch🖤lovr
Thank you so much. :)
DeleteThis is beautiful!
ReplyDeleteThank you. The inspiration is an amazing short story. To think my local library branch has NO Capote on the shelf!
DeleteYour inspiration is so delicately drawn from the quote from the book. Capote would be so pleased.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much! Those are very kind words.
DeleteIt is difficult, indeed, to watch one's beloved slipping away...
ReplyDeleteAnd then to realize you are forgetting. Forgetting their voice, or smell, or even how they looked.
DeleteThis is wonderful, Lisa. I will have to read that short story.
ReplyDelete