Vox Populi
A curated webspace for Poetry, Politics, and Nature with over 6,000,000 visitors since 2014 and over 9,000 archived posts.
Sean Sexton: Unrecognizable
A friend of my sister attended the reading—
sat in the back of the hall—coming forth only after
everyone had gone. Her name offered with her hand
barely registered.
She’d been away—stood before me, hidden by flesh
and time as if a curtain between us had been drawn.
My sister—I had to tell her
—is gone.
She hadn’t known and tears began to flow from
this unbiddened magus come to my life full
of nostalgia and grief I was not ready to receive.
She summoned my own as I said her name to myself,
minus the extra label of wedlock to help me remember
who she was and repeat later to someone we might know
in common as cure for my amnesia. She’ll be staying here
a month, she says, away from her home in Anchorage—
another name of distant syllables and vowels. I didn’t
tell her she is also lost to me from sight and mind. I
didn’t say the next steps forth were only toward our own
disappearance.
Copyright 2024 Sean Sexton
Sean Sexton, was born in Indian River County, FL, and grew up on his family’s Treasure Hammock Ranch where he manages a 700-acre cattle operation. He paints, writes, and keeps daily sketch and writing journals. His most recent poetry volume is Portals, Press 53, 2023. He performs regularly at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, NV.
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Poignancy that makes you feel. The associative leap of thought is strong. Thanks a lot for sharing.
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Thank you John. I was just reading your fine poem. I love Vox Populi!
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Poignant, true, beautifully done, Sean.
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Thankyou Marty!
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I sit and read again, again. Searching for what wrenched my heart, but sometimes it is just words placed together in a way only a poet does that leaves us unquiet and in awe. Thank you.
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Barbara: I’m honored! Thankyou!
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Such emotional restraint **yet** courage! How, in 4 lines, so much is said:
“She’d been away—stood before me, hidden by flesh
and time as if a curtain between us had been drawn.
My sister—I had to tell her
—is gone.”
This so moved me. Then, that last, chilling sentence (“in BOTH “sentence” in both meanings of the word!):
“I didn’t say the next steps forth were only toward our own
disappearance.”
Bravo, Sean.
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Laure-Anne:
You’re so wonderful! No other way to speak of you!
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“She hadn’t known and tears began to flow from
this unbiddened magus come to my life full
of nostalgia and grief I was not ready to receive.”
Gorgeous language, yes, and deeply moving. We were all there with you.
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Thank you so much Beth!
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Deeply moving, Sean.
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cryptic and beautiful Sean. (Carla Schwartz)
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Thanks, Carla. I agree.
>
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