The darkness was pervasive,
enveloping everything,
save where he held the match
over the papers arranged on the floor before him.
He looked again at the bills.
How will I pay these?
Agonizing as his lover awaits him,
calls for him from his bedroom,
unaware of the bind he has found himself in.
His wife does not know about the debt nor the mistress,
and he will make sure she never does.
A matter of pride,
he will never tell her.
The darkness nearly hid everything,
but it could not hide the past due bills;
It could not hide his seemingly futile efforts,
day after long day.
It could not hide the gap of trust in his marriage.
Why was he here, in this moment?
Still thinking of his family in the midst of his mistress.
A good man, turned by the darkness,
enveloping everything: even him.
The light of a match reaches only so far.
Dubois, Gerard. Man sitting, holding a match over paper. Digital image.Exposition Gerard Dubois. Costume 3 Pieces, 5 Jan. 2010. Web. 30 Aug. 2015.
Your poem has a complete structure since you can feel the rising action and the denouement, though the reader is still left questioning. It is clever how you return the match back at the simple sentence at the end. Like the matchstick, the last sentence feels like it is fading away into the night, but it also bring illumination. The questions throughout aid the reader in feeling both a sympathy and a cruel judgement of the main character.
ReplyDeleteYour poem has a lot of depth to it and I like how it is so narrative, leaving the audience to wonder more. The stanzas organize the piece well.
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