Day Twenty Three: Ekphrasis

Go here to learn about Ekphraksis poems. I wrote this poem after looking at a diorama (and for the life of me I cannot remember the name/artists). Click here for info on what a diorama is. It was a smallish diorama: about 2' x 1'  and the exterior was painted red and you had to bend down to look through a small peephole and inside the interior is painted grey and it's a diorama of a bus/train station and there are small numbers above the doors, and the detail is amazing. I could almost read out the numbers on the lockers across the tiny room.

So here goes:


Peephole Postcard

It has been a while since

I have played the waiting game,

            especially when all I want is to be alone.

Behind the numbers 5, 6, 7

in creeping shadows

it is lonely in the gray

By my fading, transparent body

the wall with your gilded,

framed ghost evaporates.

Even in this silent picture

            you cannot take me with you.

And in this hollowed-out station,

I could wait for you-

the way you want me to-

but your heartbeat

and this breath

            cannot occupy the same space.