Tuesday, October 10, 2023

ABSORBED

by Theodore Eisenberg



Cy Twombly, Achilles Mourning the Death of Patroclus, 1962. Cy Twombly Foundation via Two Coats of Paint.



When so many massacred in one 

episode, words also assailants. 

If you squint at the mourners—

feet, hands and heads break away, 

dissipate into the sanctuary’s hazy 

walls—and you begin to understand 

how families dissolve into scapes. 

 

But if you hearken with care, you 

hear cries from the wooden panels, 

whispers from the crevices. These 

the unsaid, now spoken, silences of 

once. But if you attend with a foolish 

heart, and hear song and laughter 

teem from wood and brick, you dream.



Theodore Eisenberg retired from the practice of labor law in 2014 to write. When words seem too restrictive, he paints. His poems have appeared in The Aurorean, Thema, Rattle, Slipstream Press, Crosswinds Press, Lighthouse Literary Journal, Main Street Rag, concis, Philadelphia Stories, Aji Magazine, Every Writer, Blue Mountain Review, Valley Voices, Hamilton Stone Review, Rust & Moth, The Ekphrastic Review, and many other journals. His chapbook This was published by Finishing Line Press in 2017.