Bleeding ink on a supposed cheek

Bleeding ink on a supposed cheek

 

 

old stamps

the unsent apology

no postmark

just a sealed envelope of feelings

 

yellowing in a drawer of disclosure

the mailbox patiently waited

for me to find the courage

the flag half-raised in agony stripes

 

the interior not so eloquent

the words roughly wounded

illegible

 

but you'll never see me cry.

 

 

erin-cilberto

1/2/22

Reviews

[Ada]

Don't you miss snail mail sometimes? I get the impression that you were agonizing over an unsent letter that just sort of haunts your drawer.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

I miss it all the time...I have a couple very special letters from someone who was so close to me...she has been gone for years...a fire...
but she is always in my heart...and those letters still bring a tear to my eye.
thank you, Ada,
j.

[JE Falcon]

To a place many have wandered, that drawer all dark and full of best intensions. Well done!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you, JE,
j.

[Kesch (Finding Julia)]

I still write letters to my family, even though people don't really do it anymore.
nicely written and well expressed

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you, Kesch, most of my students have no idea how to address an envelope...
j.

[Kesch (Finding Julia)]

that is sad.....
now days kids can't write cursive either, i think that is sad and wrong

[Ted Kniffen]

Quite the story here my friend.
That letter written ... sitting in its envelope but not posted ... now resting in the back of the drawer, yellowed with age ... the ink fading to grey ... the thought still there "why didn't I send it?"

But, you know, how deep ran the wound and how feeble would be the apology.

"Regrets ... I've had a few"

This touched home j.

[Ruth]

And subtle tears become the ink over time...truly beautiful piece Jacob :) So tenderly expressed...

[Fran Marie]

Letter writing is a dying art
even Christmas cards sending
is just about dead..the internet
has changed our lives via
communiation.back in the day
I so enjoyed writing and receiving
mail..nice write up

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, Mail.
So many of my students have no idea how to address and stamp an envelope.
the dying art, but we remember.
I used to make calls on a rotary phone as well.
what has become of us?

thank you, Fran.

[Fran Marie]

I hear ya..me too
I remember metal
ice trays also
and milk in glass
bottles..the good
old days are gone forever

[Julie McCarthy (juliesp..]

My fave verse the second one
Loved the whole Shabang
I was an avid pen paller in my youth and about twenty years ago too as well snail mail I loved to get from uk USA etc stopped it now

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you, Julie. Yes, those were the days.
j.

[M. J. Smith]

Plenty of old letters in my desk. Poems mostly. Today text had taken precedence as the chosen means of communication. Do lovers save them in computer? Seems a cold existence to me.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

never owned a cell phone and don't text....
I do type on the computer and I like emails with real conversation and not broken up English.
But I really did like letters...
Most of my students have no idea how to address an envelope with a letter in it.
No idea where the stamps go, return address and what needs to be in the address of the person to whom it is sent.
j.

[M. J. Smith]

My girl is 14 years of of and can't sign her own name. Uses a touch screen though. What went wrong with this world?

[lovelymarina]

Hey Jacob...
Happy new year friend. Lovely to read your alluring poetry as usual. This one hit really hard for me. Though I've particularly grown up in the time of social media you could say, I still have letters to old lovers piled up in drawers that will probably wither away until I hit the grave. There's something quite beautiful about it. I did one time write a ten page letter and drop it off at an old lover's house. Way more intriguing than a quick text, right? Ironic being that my dad's a mailman!

I loved the ending "but you'll never see me cry". That line really struck me, and wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it was perfect. The perfect ending to a poem about unspoken words. Thank you for sharing.

Marina

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Marina,
thank you for sharing...and coincidentally, my uncle was also a mailman.
I used to love writing letters and getting them...I dated a woman from Poland. Met her here in Carbondale, she was an exchange student. We were together for awhile then she went back to Poland and we wrote constantly to each other...the letters took about a week or so to get back and forth, but they were worth waiting for.
thank you again for your kind words,
j.