This poem had it's beginnings elsewhere, another much shorter version exists. In this version I have taken the theme and expanded it to incorporate more and likened the two rings sitting together reacting like mother and daughters often do! I think this is the first prose poem I have ever written. I'm still not sure about it. I found it hard not to break it up into lines and stanzas. Let me know what you think.
The Ring
I twist the gold band feeling your essence when only
warmth remains after a fire has died. I wear it next to my own wedding ring.
They sing in unison recognising each other. This is all I have now. This and
the memories, a wardrobe full of clothes, an album full of photos and I cling
to them like an abandoned child for I am an orphan now.
Some days later my finger rejects the ring. The flesh
swells as the two gold bands rub and snub each other just as we did in those
falling out days, in the silences and the cheap flung words meant to hurt. Now
I clutch at your remaining blouses and skirts, reluctant to part with every bit
of you, fingering broaches and necklaces, remembering the lipsticks you bought
in reckless moments when you were down.
I lay your wedding band aside as I fold your life into
bin bags. I take what I can even the earrings I will never wear. I cannot bear
to dispose of you like this. I grab the ring and place it back on my finger. It
nestles close to mine. Whatever we have been through our bond glues us
together. In the years that will follow I become stronger than you could ever
know. But I don’t know that now. I only long for you. The moment I wake, after
that second before I remember, the ache grinds into me.
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