Conversation Poem by Ai Ogawa

Conversation

Rating: 3.3


We smile at each other
and I lean back against the wicker couch.
How does it feel to be dead? I say.
You touch my knees with your blue fingers.
And when you open your mouth,
a ball of yellow light falls to the floor
and burns a hole through it.
Don't tell me, I say. I don't want to hear.
Did you ever, you start,
wear a certain kind of dress
and just by accident,
so inconsequential you barely notice it,
your fingers graze that dress
and you hear the sound of a knife cutting paper,
you see it too
and you realize how that image
is simply the extension of another image,
that your own life
is a chain of words
that one day will snap.
Words, you say, young girls in a circle, holding hands,
and beginning to rise heavenward
in their confirmation dresses,
like white helium balloons,
the wreathes of flowers on their heads spinning,
and above all that,
that's where I'm floating,
and that's what it's like
only ten times clearer,
ten times more horrible.
Could anyone alive survive it?

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Anabel just Anabel 01 February 2007

wow pretty cool! ! sure when we think about death we get a chill but is not so bad...

6 4 Reply
Pranab K Chakraborty 17 June 2012

and that's what it's like only ten times clearer, ten times more horrible............ Well played harmony between life and death.

4 4 Reply
Leslie Philibert 17 June 2013

reminds me of the confessional style of Olds and Plath - excellent

4 3 Reply
Kevin Patrick 17 June 2014

The imagery is vivid with beauty with tinges of horror, the sequence of young girls in a circle, makes me think of human sacrifices performed by pagan cultures. Theirs also a Lovecraftian feel, when she asks what its like to be dead but then doesn't want to hear it because it would alter her reality.

3 2 Reply
Lydia Monet 17 June 2014

In figure skating my coach tells me that every movement I make must become one. She expressed that in her poem beautifully! Poetry, I feel must be about self-expression!

3 1 Reply
Ratnakar Mandlik 22 October 2016

Your own life Is a chain of words that one day will snap. Amazing imagery. Thanks for sharing.

2 1 Reply
Warden Vukeya 22 October 2016

I really enjoyed reading this poem, nice one

2 1 Reply
Edward Kofi Louis 22 October 2016

Life and death. Facing the facts. Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

2 1 Reply
Elena Sandu 22 October 2016

Wow a breath taking poem, such an amazing read, will try to learn more of this poet.

1 1 Reply
Michael Walker 19 March 2015

A dialogue between the living and the dead. I think it succeeds. Michael Walker.

1 1 Reply
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Ai Ogawa

Ai Ogawa

Albany, Texas
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