- Non-Erotic Poetry
- Balancing chessmen on his nose?
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- A eulogy for “Uncle Dud”
Bear hugs & peaches,
balancing chessmen on his nose…
pawns & rooks & things
that most of us never see.
The secrets he never talked about
in the lies he had to tell.
The bartenders who knew his name
in places he drank…
places that most of us never see.
Places from the newspaper,
in articles about détente
& submarines & nuclear winters.
Everything written in hen-scratchings
that men like him understand.
Letters & numbers & symbols
that can erase a memory,
the way an awkward hand
smudges chalk on the blackboard.
Mistakes most of us never see,
the ones we never talk about
with friends & family & strangers…
the son who’ll never understand
the shadows around him,
or the other son, who watched him die.
It’s all quiet things now…
memories & places & words,
things that no one will ever know.
Things that can’t be told.
A life of buttons & slogans & lies
that too soon lose their meaning.
- Oliver Dudley Stewart, 1926-1997
- COMMENTS
duddle146about 17 years agoOld secrets and the old life passes away ~ soon lost in the merciful mists of time.
LeBrozabout 17 years agoThe men that live and work in the secret world of...
Hey, I can't tell; it wouldn't be a secret then, would it?
Anonymousover 19 years agoI think I met him. The fellow I am thinking of was a big, tall guy who lived in Maryland and worked for the government doing strange stuff. His nickname was Dud, too.
