His coat still hangs behind the doorthe way it hung in life,and nobody in this narrow housewill move it, said his wife.
For thirteen months it kept its shape,the shoulders and the sleeve,as though a man might come for itthe moment we believe.
I said to her, it's only wool,it's only cold and thread.She said, then you can carry itto Oxfam in my stead.
I stood before it half the day.I could not lift it down.Some griefs are heavier than the thing.I left it. I left town.
And still behind that narrow door,in a house I don't go near,a coat is keeping someone's shapeagainst another year.
About the balladA poem that tells a story in short, songlike stanzas.
A ballad tells a story, often a dramatic one, in a songlike voice. Many ballads repeat a line or phrase and move quickly from event to event. The stanzas are short, so the story keeps moving.
The shape The traditional ballad stanza is four lines, alternating four and three beats, with lines two and four rhyming.
Listen for A story unfolding, repeated lines, and a rhythm you could almost sing.
2 poems in this form →@saoirse
Elegies for things that don't usually get one: a coat, an answering machine, a mill.
6 poems · 7 readings received · 9 written · 4 followers
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