Aftermath

[Delta40]

People whisper as I approach
but seldom speak out loud.

Kindly, sympathetic smiles
add to a burden I deserve to carry.

I catch a 'Do you know what she did?'
It slaps me for another fifty feet.

Banal, meaningless shopping bags
weigh my arms down.

My shoulders slump as if I am
resigned to their unspoken fate.

Eventually, the plastic handles
cut off my circulation.

Perhaps I will stop feeling
once my hands turn blue.

It can't lessen the pain, the shame
of making the unbearable choice.

[hillwalker]

Mhmm. You've gone all zoo on us here, Delta. Not so much in the style but in the dark subject matter and the leaving of things unsaid.

It slaps me for another fifty feet.

I can believe that - I felt it.

H

[Hawkman]

Very powerful, Delta, but I'm sure I read that title somewhere recently :D

An sin which dare not speak its name, with its burden of guilt and shame, a feeling of being constantly under observation, of being judged, or even commiserated with. Extraordinarily well executed poem. You leave the anonymous deed to the imagination of the reader which adds to the power of the piece.

Great poem, Delta.

Live and be well, H

[PrinceMyshkin]

Yes, the "slaps me" line is blunt and unavoidable. The short, vulnerable couplets are like a stammer that underlines the pain of what's being conveyed.