![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/In-the-name-of-the-father.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
by David L Painter<\/p>\n
\n
I stood leaning against the aged grey wall
\narms folded tightly against my chest
\nas if to hold in my breath lest it become still.
\nYellow streams of sickly light filtered
\nthrough the drawn window shades like a
\ncandle\u2019s glow before the edge of day
\nsmall darts of dust float in the air all suspended in time
\nlike forgotten memories.<\/p>\n
So this is what death smells of.
\nof decay, of cracked odors that invade the nostrils and leave
\ntheir pungent sting before fading off into flaked paint
\nand hanging wallpaper.
\nOf a dark chest of drawers holding a treasured
\nlock of his first- bourn\u2019s hair, a gold watch a token of a
\nlifetime of service.
\nAll like the fruit of persimmons,
\npretty but bitter to the mouth.<\/p>\n
A round mirror hangs from a veined wall
\nreflecting Jesus hanging from a wire
\nunder which the hopefully has come to rest.
\nThe ragged gasps of life blend into the metered rhythm
\nof a desired rest.<\/p>\n
A bedside table piled high with white -caped amber containers
\nall meant to keep the decay at bay
\neach administered three times a day.
\nI close my eyes and half -drift away, holding the faded
\nblack and white picture
\nthat held a man full of life and wishing
\nthat it were still so.<\/p>\n
David L Painter is a International published poet. He is a member of Inner circle writers’ group and Penned in the city. His works have been published in Sweetycat press. Piker press, Rye Whiskey Review, Clarendon House. Spillwords Press, The Writer\u2019s Club, and Dyst Literary Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David L Painter is a International published poet. He is a member of Inner circle writers’ group and Penned in the city<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-death-poems"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.everywritersresource.com\/poemeveryday\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}