Affliction Poem by Valsa George

Affliction

Rating: 5.0


You have raided my night again
as the burst of a sudden storm
Sneaking into my loneliness
at the most unexpected hour
Plunging me into swirls of pain
too deep for expression.
Leaving me to drift aimless
through the dingy avenues of the past
Never once able to sever the chord
that binds me so tight to those memoirs
Exposing me to torrid heat
with my soul, burning down….
Like a piece of smouldering coal

Sleepless are my nights
Dreamless are my days
Like the sundown shadows growing bigger
With every stride we take
The farther I move, the closer you follow.


Can I convince you ever again
I never meant any harm to you
How wearily have I watched the flies
lured by the dazzling light
char into diminutive specks of black
by the scorching tongues of flame
Still, why did I let you burn
in the flame of my accursed passion?

You were like a flower admired from afar
Afraid of even the gentle breeze coming near
Lest it might jolt the delicate frame
And shake the petals down, sooner than due.

Yet vulnerable turned the moment
When all of a sudden, it started to rain
Like a child, eager to play in the puddles
You ran out into the pouring rain

All soaked through and through
You came in…..awhile my gaze
rested on the filmy fabric
seductively clinging to your curves,
Then,
That wild surge…..beat me down.
And Alas! Under a magnetic pull
surrendered your fragile self with ease.
In that moment of self abandonment
looted off all that you held chaste.

Never surmised, you were crying
when I felt your cheeks, so wet.
Now I know, it was agony
not ecstasy that I, then, beheld on your sentient face!

You refused to respond to my calls
Unanswered went all my anxious queries.
Like a hibernating toad,
to some dark under ground cave, you slid.

Abruptly, alerted on call
by an alien sound, far from familiar
I hastened to the casualty ward
and saw you lying limp
with drops of blood, still dripping down
from your slashed wrist
staring at me with an open mouth!

As I watched you lying still
with your eyes refusing to flutter,
I knew my world tottering below
and my heart, set ablaze
into a funeral pyre.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Simon Collins 14 May 2012

Wow that is a tale of heavy burden well described

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Exuberant and didactic; envisaging and descriptive and above all effusive of a rare reciprocation, how else can a poet speak? The blend of imagination and intuition has a reverberating effect over these lines...

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Chandra Thiagarajan 14 December 2012

The grace and magnificence with which the story is expressed, the imagery and description of the poignant situation is really great and wonderful which wrings the heart.!

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Pradip Chattopadhyay 11 September 2013

what started as feast for his eyes ended in the death of love! penned it nice, Valsa.

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Deepak Kumar Pattanayak 14 August 2014

This is but an affliction true to come natural when you feast your eyes on her explicitly but turns out to be otherwise and ends in surprising agony........Valsa......a powerful write with delicate emotions....10/10

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Chinedu Dike 29 October 2022

A poignant work of art exquisitely crafted with artistic brilliance.

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Mj Lemon 27 June 2019

Absolutely brilliant, Valsa. You capture what truly may be the profoundest suffering....the night without sleep, the day without dreams. What is the source of the greater(est) disturbance? The sleepless night or dreamless awakening? Absolutely wonderful poem.

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Kumarmani Mahakul 10 February 2019

Sleepless nights still whispers to give different perception. Flowers have admired the moment of life. A nice poem gives nice feelings on reading. Revisiting this we feel very glad. An excellent sharing is done.10

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Kumarmani Mahakul 08 August 2018

You have raided my night again as the burst of a sudden storm Sneaking into my loneliness at the most unexpected hour Plunging me into swirls of pain too deep for expression. Leaving me to drift aimless through the dingy avenues of the past..........the arena of the beginning is so heartrending and attractive. The title of the poem is justified as per the inscription. A beautiful poem shared amazingly.10

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Edward Kofi Louis 11 July 2016

You have raided my night again! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.

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