Poems by Edward Lee

PASSING


In death
we consider
the person
we may have ignored 
in life, or if not ignored,
perhaps did not offer
as much of our time
as we could have,

and wonder, perhaps,
if others will harbor
similar thoughts
as they stand at the end
of us, or will there even
be anyone present
who does not need to be there,
those obliged by blood
and those paid by money
to guide our bodies
to wherever we decide
our bodies must go
when they are of no use
to us anymore, and
all the possibilities
that we once before us,
even as we were deciding
where our empty bodies might go,
are no more.

WOUNDS OF TIME AND MIND


If only my skin
could recover
as well as my mind
eventually does – and
‘well’ is doing a lot
of work there, I must admit  
– then maybe my directory of scars
wouldn't wipe the smiles
from the faces
of those few 
who have deemed me,
while waiting for life
to better turn in their direction,
worth wasting
some wet hours with.

NEVER-ENDING UNTIL ITS ENDS


The handful of photographs
I still have – real photographs
and not the images hidden
on a phone, those ones
so easy to delete and never
come upon again – they hold 
our time together
better than my memory,
our smiles alive with youth
and a never-ending love,

a never-ending love
the little kindness left in me
finds easier to believe in
than what unfolded
when our love actually ended, 
our youth following soon after, age
taking is vicious toll
on the years left to us,
while those years gone
we soon believed
we wasted in the never-ending love
that ended, the pain of parting
erasing any good from our memories,
bar what can be seen in old photographs
that, I believe, exist nowhere else
but in my hand.

About the Poet:

Edward Lee’s poetry, short stories, non-fiction and photography have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen, The Blue Nib and Poetry Wales.  His play ‘Wall’ received a rehearsed reading as part of Druid Theatre’s Druid Debuts 2020. He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy.

His blog/website can be found at https://edwardmlee.wordpress.com