TITLE: … And Time Stops

AUTHOR: Drew Petriello

CATEGORY: Space & Place

AUTHOR COMMENTARY:

WARNING: This block of text explains much of the piece.  If you are hellbent on deciphering the poem for yourself, don’t read this.  Thou hast been warned.  And now: While this poem does deal with death, I believe it is a better fit for Space and Place because it has a lot to do with being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I like to think of “space” here to mean “space/time” as there is a large distortion of time taking place – the first two stanzas occur in reverse order and are heavily slowed down. In the final it speeds up and takes place between two and one. Like all my poems, this one is special to me, mostly because of how easily it came to me – I typically feel the need to agonize over every word, but that just wasn’t the case here. Now, I know what you’re going to say, “Drew, you’re such a happy person, yet you write dark topics; shouldn’t you be nothing more than I mewling ball of sadness?” to which I respond “No way!  Writing depressing things is like an exorcism; I cast out the demons from my soul, so to speak.  Don’t we all need a way to do so?  If man did not have a means to vent his demons, the world would be nothing more tha-”    “Shut up, Drew.”    So… yeah.  I enjoyed writing this and I hope it makes you feel some small twinge of emotion.  Read forth!

ENTRY:

The window shatters, the body crumbles,

Shards fly through the air like a beetle, molasses,

A moment’s horror, a moment’s realization

Barely bare fruition,

And time stops.

Her hands are smooth, lips are trembling,

Closer and pressed tighter like a mother its long lost child,

A moment’s release, a moment’s desire

Ignite intrinsic grace,

And time stopped.  And began again.  Far too soon.

Forever only lasts as long as a frozen second.

The goodbyes were said with no lingering dread,

The smiles melt any ice, and they live with the choice,

And so die with the choice to open the door,

Die with the choice to drive through an average intersection,

Die with the choice hung on another man’s neck,

The choice to swill, to refuse, to hold pride,

The choices collide in the moment time stops,

That which ended leaves a crystallized fiancé,

A man whose drunken revelries thrust him through the fray,

And a man whose most joyful moments were mere minutes away.

AUTHOR BIO:

Drew Petriello is a freshman at Chapman University from Edmonds, Washington (basically, Seattle).  He is majoring in Theatre and has a minor in Music.  Drew is passionate about many things, chiefly his acting, music and writing.  On top of having played a large variety of characters, Drew has spent much of his free time writing Heavy Metal music on his guitar and writing stories steeped in fantastical elements.  Drew is thrilled to be in the Chapman honors program and hopes that the coming years here will be full of opportunity and excitement.