My Mind
by Edward WH Pease '06

I walked into the lonely, dark room,
I hadn’t been back there in ages.
A smell of musk filled the room,
a smell of mold, old paper, and dust.
Paper crinkled beneath my feet.
Searching the wall I found the light switch.
Flipping it, light exploded with a pop.

The floor was littered with slips of paper
and balls of failed inspiration,
having cascaded from a
small can not nearly big enough.
I picked one up and read:
So I write, my only art,
To prove my love to you.
“What crap,” I thought, and tossed it to the
floor. The writing had seemed so familiar.

The paper shared the little room with a desk
and bookcases that strained under their load.
Books lay scattered on the floor, opened as if
left precisely where the reader had paused.
On the ancient desk lay a pad of yellowing
paper, words concealed by a think layer of
grey, the pens long dried out.
“Someday I should clean this,” I muttered
turning out the light, I closed the door.

Edward WH Pease ‘06

On the Death of his Grandfather
V. W. Pease July 29, 1935-August 15, 2003

We gathered together
some sitting
some standing
collectively alone
grasping clouds
each our own world
holding each other,
numb to their touch
some silent
some sobbing
staring at the man
who was
husband, father, brother, boss

Awkward words flow from a preacher’s mouth
not consoling but confusing
our grief, anger, pain, relief.

The room is oppressive.

I swear that he’s still breathing
nothing more than a trick of the eye,
a dream of the mind, a hope in my heart.

His face is like mine
though it shows the wear of age
and the ravages of cancer’s three year reign.
His hair is thinning here and there
His skin slightly yellowed.

We become mindless machines
signing forms, making plans
not a moment of time to mourn.
We busy our brains allowing
not a moment of rest.
So we’re here together, apart,
waiting for something we don’t know,
recounting moments, memories of the man.

Edward WH Pease ‘06

These poems are reprinted from the Castle's Fall 2003 edition.

Edward WH Pease '06 is a religion major at Wartburg College.