The sky is full of omens.
The clouds form faces
And shadows dapple the stunted grass.
Like a legion of rowdy Romans
A phalanx of thunder passes
Over the mountains & into the basin.
Drench us in this weather.
Give us a rain to remember.
For we are scorched beyond endurance.
Our desperation shall be your splendor.
Traveling the road
of beauty and despair
A convoluted journey, truth be told
That two such vastly different means
of sight and heart
Should blend so seamlessly
seems hardly possible
Yet hand in hand through bitter
life they go
At times inseparable, if truth be told
For there is a fair beauty
in despair
A tantalizing anguish found in
shattered dreams
The tormenting destruction of our
sweetest hopes
The remnants swirling broken at our feet
Hold fascination for us in the
sweet despair
And beauty in the tatters
of our dreams
Hiding the shame, hiding the scars, hiding the bruises
Acting like a hero when I know I’m helpless
With my head held high I never cease to smile just to hide my frowned wrinkled face waiting to be swept away by mother nature in no time.
Saying I’m okay just to save myself from a flood of questions.
Because I thought I was strong enough, I erected a wall for people not to see my suffering.
I stand strong yet I’m breaking from within
The pain in my soul cuts so deep that it reaches to the flesh and bones
Detachment is the defence mechanism I use to ease the pain
“It will get better in time”, a lie that gives me hope for tomorrow!
Broken into pieces, hoping people will see through the bricks and come through for me
Will this fragile wall ever fall or will I just die silently with nobody to notice?
As I sob and weep over my sorrows, I keep on wondering if there’s still a place for people like me in the world
Surely no man is an island because I’m suffocating in my own land.
Your life is in the open
your heart is against the wall
a thousand times a day
that howlin’ from fifteen years ago
won’t quit
sneaking up on ya
ghost to ghost
no water in you
no light to come
as you are
this broken
and leaning
against
all that can’t hold you
the ground
neath you
opening its hungry mouth
this time something’s gonna feed
and it won’t quit till you’re gone.
Gray clouds blacken the dusk
A sliver of moon
Shivers in the ocean
Little sunbursts in his head
Throwing back shots
Numbness
Flowing through his veins
Garbled messages in the tavern
Try to comfort a fire
That will not surrender
A muted scene of fishing boats
Eyes closing down on the daily frazzle
Generations seek to dull
One empty net after another
A fish out if water
Doesn’t want to feel the hook ripped out
Throwing back shots again and again
fermenting at the edges
here in these forgotten towns
burning in collective pain
memories and history
swirling down the drain
She moved uneasily
From one foot
To the other
Outside the Salvation Army office
Shouldering a child
Squirming in her arms
Her bruises still fresh
Her husband in jail
Once too often
His drunken temper
Struck out at her
The child wanted down
His impatience showing
The mother broken
Never in her imagination
Would she need charity
But here she was
Desperation vanquishing pride
Waiting for a food order
Some money
To pay the rent
Another woman
Passed her
Her plastic bag full
Meat, bread and can goods
Hazel smiled
As she welcomed
The reluctant lady
Soon tears
Accompanied her story
Hazel took her hand
Offering a prayer
And a shoulder
Hazel had heard the story
The plot the same
Only the names different
Filling the order
Giving a bear
To the boy
The woman thankful
Promising future generosity
When things were different
When her husband changed
She left
With a thanks
Over her shoulder
Hazel knew
She would be back
The story never changes
It seems so long ago
that life felt fairly normal
Not waking up each day to
more horrible news
The government ruining this,
wrecking that
It seems so long ago
so very long ago
So hard to wake up
each morning, wondering
what new bad thing is
happening to
our country
More at https://elizamimski.wordpress.com/.
Bring me back
for I am lost
like a false thing kept on guard as truth.
I am an albatross thrown broken-winged
across the sea. I am pesticide touching lips.
The dead thing tied to my back is finding
a way in.
I found nothing holy on this shore.
I can barely keep afloat – my words are rotten,
my hymns are carried off by a storm.
The leap I took
has ended in disaster.
My dance has reached a conclusion.
My life is haunted. The rope
is pulled.
More at http://www.allisongrayhurst.com.
—–
Allison Grayhurst is a member of the League of Canadian Poets. Three times nominated for Sundress Publications “Best of the Net” 2015, she has over 1000 poems published in over 410 international journals. She has sixteen published books of poetry, seven collections and nine chapbooks. She lives in Toronto with her family. She is a vegan. She also sculpts, working with clay.
Reality can leave you naked and alone
a painful ingrown toe nail
you try cutting it out
with a quart of delusion
swallowing grief
choking on anger
someone throws you a life raft
you grab it
a virtual reality of blurred memories
numbing the senses
you need to believe in something
Dancing through the sorrow, I step around the pain,
but nothing breaks the bough of memory and shame.
Pressured on my path, I never look away,
blocking from my sight, a single welcomed ray.
Garnered by the dawn and darkened by the fight,
a missed relief, a single breath of solitary light.
A wretched walk, a shadowed path – a history of souls.
Abreast I stand with myself hidden by the folds.
Broken by despair and shrouded in delusion
A walk I take, hand in hand – and draw the same conclusion.