I must admit, words seemed like empty shells
Which passed without leaving any trail
And even the most gruesome of detail
Could not convey or move, did not entail…
As I saw open wounds and broken bones
Eyes didn’t flinch and my heart didn’t throb.
As rational as always, I went home
Not knowing if I have been blessed or robbed…
Disclaimer: Sorry if it sounds a bit creepy, the meaning behind it is that I very rarely feel emotions like sadness, fear or disgust when watching a movie or reading literature. The good side is that I can “take” almost anything, the negative side – that I don’t get “emotions for free” (without real-life stuff that happens… I felt sad when I learned what happened to the author, but her poetry didn’t affect me in any way). I could easily make up something but perhaps it’s good to write something real for a change. :D
Well, I wouldn’t worry too much about your disclaimer. If something doesn’t affect you, it doesn’t affect you – and that can be as much a decent subject for a poem as something which does affect you. And, of course, there’s a whole tradition of poetry ‘in dialogue’ with – i.e. reflecting on – other poems. A quick technical point – ‘entail’ probably isn’t quite the right word here as it pretty much has to have an object – i.e. something has to entail something else. Again you use half-rhyme effectively – and the last line is particularly strong.