Family Portrait Having managed not to stir sleeping children as I labored to bear his weight, stumbled down the dark hallway to the bedroom where exhausted he's collapsed, I've slipped thin fingers under the coarse laces of his boots showers of dirt falling to the carpet as I pulled them from his feet. Having hushed him as he mumbled promises and curses to people only he can see, left him swaddled in a blue blanket alcohol oozing from his pores thin sheets taking on the stench of whiskey I press bare knees into cold tile, and begin scrubbing circles over vomit strewn floors.
In this poem I am concerned with using the word "having" to create the
buildup to the final point.
I would like impressions on the use of the word
swaddled, which I have debated with myself. I am concerned mostly with the
flow, it feels a bit awkward to me and I would love ideas on how to improve it.
Bridgette,
This is both sad and lovely. You manage a scene that doubtless has been repeated many times in households across America.
Most of this works well, but you get too heavy handed at the end. Learn the power of suggestion, rather than direct statement.
Here's a few suggestions.
Start line three with the word "we." Period instead of a comma after collapsed.
Place a comma or double dash after "boots" in the next line.
Place the pronoun "I" at the beginning of line 12.
Change the next line to read "his blue blanket of alcohol." (Cut "oozing from his pores") and put a period after alcohol.
Next line, change "taking" to "take."
Start line fifteen with the word "as."
Others may like it, but I'd take out "vomit-strewn." In its place, substitute the word "the."
For me, the poem has already said enough of a wife's agonies of having to deal
with an alcoholic husband without the vomit image.
This is good writing from the heart, good witnessing in straightforward language.
Scott Reid <scotts@sonic.net>
USA - Mon Oct 23 16:36:46 2000
Readers: You may wish to contact Bridget Gage-Dixon privately with your ideas about this poem.