the hunchback They say he hunches with the worst burden, The pain of separation that would never end. It grows, day upon day, dragging him lower And would not and could not ever go away. He will die with that pain, ensnared in its effects, Writhing in pain, and something else Something stronger than pain. But they also say he embraces death Like a friend late for a meeting Waiting for it patiently Never losing faith Never doubting it will come One day.
chiiyo's comments :
This poem started off as a very simple three to four line poem. It was an experimental poem, and I was simply trying to express the idea of a burden that never goes away. Everytime I read it, I had a new idea. Every line that I read, I thought of another idea to insert. After a while the poem changed and expanded to the version you see now. There are lots of imagery in this poem, some of them being expanded upon, some of them lead to dead ends. If I was a really good poet, everything would have a nice round-up, but I like the poem as it is right now, and so I leave it as it is, incomplete, hanging... perhaps representative too, of the subject matter?