Heat of Truth

The vase shattering, an instant eternally frozen in time
The vase shattering, an instant eternally frozen in time
Who could imagine our lives would be combined with this splash?
Who could imagine our lives would be combined with this splash?
Time; imagine the lives eternally combined with-in this vase
An instant shattering, our splash frozen, who could-be, would

Wet clothes fall off in the heat, turning friends to strangers to lovers
Wet clothes fall off in the heat, turning friends to strangers to lovers
Fountain water creeps, a letter revealing truth forms in his mind
Fountain water creeps, a letter revealing truth forms in his mind
Heat clothes the strangers, water forms, revealing lovers to friends
A wet letter in his fountain, truth creeps, to fall off in mind

The young girl watches at a nursery window, eyes wide open
The young girl watches at a nursery window, eyes wide open
Sunshine vanishes a puddle, life, to punish or atone?
Sunshine vanishes a puddle, life, to punish or atone?
Eyes to sunshine, young vanishes, punish a nursery.
Or open a window wide, atone, puddle watches the girl at life

Letter revealing truth to atone, or shattering lives, to be combined
The vase watches our sunshine lovers, wet with heat
Who could his young eyes eternally splash, a girl in the nursery?
Would a window in time fall to strangers, punish friends?
Imagine. At the fountain creeps off clothes, this mind forms a wide puddle
Life vanishes in an instant, open, frozen water.



Notes
I was inspired after reading Billy Collins’s “Paradelle for Susan” so I decided would write a paradelle about Atonement for my extended journal. This poem is based off a scene from the book in which a young man and woman, Robbie and Cecilia, have an argument on a hot summer day, and break a valuable vase. Cecilia strips and plunges into the fountain to receive the broken pieces, while Robbie stares and realizes that he loves her. Meanwhile, Briony, Cecilia’s little sister, is watching the scene from the nursery window and thinks that Robbie is ordering Cecilia around. After Robbie and Cecilia depart, Robbie goes home and writes Cecilia a love letter while Briony begins to formulate the idea that Robbie is a malicious man, an idea that gets her in trouble when she wrongly accuses him of a crime he didn’t commit, a crime that Briony spends the rest of her life trying to atone for.