Tag: emotion

She Detaches

Photo Courtesy of Alexander Dodds on Pexels.com
Detach,

Detach from it all,

All that held her down,

Sandbags of what others wanted,

Needed, expected her to be.



She detaches,

Cutting loose and through

Tentacles of veins and arteries,

Strangling ropes of memories.



The things she could never be-

Mary, The Mother, to wash you clean

Before placing you in your tomb;

A variant of some second coming

To cure you and cleanse you of sins;

The perpetual penitent 

To beg forgiveness from you:

All these she will not be.



From these things you wanted her to be,

She detaches, though she wears

The scars of the floggings given her

By those who accuse her, blame her

For not being enough—

The scars waxen now melt 

In the warmth of her detachment.



Though you call her cold, emotionless,

When she detaches from those who

Bleed her life away,

When she rises

From beneath the ton of stones 

You place upon her chest 

To stop her breath,

Freed from the stone,

She breathes.

No Grief for a House

I will grieve the memories 

not made in this place.

I will let the ashes of hopes

Sift in wisps like fine sand,

Falling in desperate escape,

Between the fingers of my aching hands.



A pretty house, yes.

The aesthetics, pleasing—

Built to fill a need

To cook Thanksgiving and Christmas,

Those production number meals,

Of which picture post card

Memories are made,

—the brined turkey, the standing rib—

Yet this place remains a hollow shell, pretty, yes,

containing no memories made

Of laughter and holidays and meals,

Didn’t need that larger Christmas tree—

No need, no need—



A harsh lesson to learn—

There is such a thing

As aging out of a place—

Too old for patience,

I have not five or ten years

To see if memories be made

To turn this hollow, pretty shell

Into the home I hoped.










Consequences of Time

Image courtesy of Pexels.com
Consequences of time

Climb and mount

About the throat,

Following the path 

Of arteries and veins,

And as if by magic,

Enter into the blood

To provide a dram bit

Of bitter choking poison

To the will of moving blood

That slows and stills

In the knowing.

Burn Away

Courtesy of free photo library 
Is this what you, indeed, wish?



The feel of some bold mystic chaos

Contained within the fire of kisses

Traveling along the boundaries 

Where lived an identity 

You lost long ago—

To feel that chaotic fire

Burn away the identity 

You wear today—

Feel passionate softness

Twist within and around

Leaving bruises unseen

And you undone

In twisting mystic 

Chaos of fire.

The Chase of Words

Image courtesy of Windows Report

VJ’s Weekly Challenge: The Chase – One Woman’s Quest II

 

The words—

It is the always—the words—

I have always been

Searching the sidewalks, paths, trails, highways, the sky outside

     For the words—

Combing gently through those I love

     For the words—

Hunting the faces of strangers, my own face, my dogs, my friends

     For the words—

Scouring the hearts, the souls of those I observe

     For the words—

Ransacking restful, peace giving nature

     For the words—

Scourging even, in the chase, my faith

     For the words—

And they are never perfect.

The Mechanics of Flight

magnificent-hummingbird-costa-rica-flying-40067390

Image from Dreamtime.com

 

The science of flight
Broken, stripped down
Into the realism of words.
The dryness of what happens:
Lift and torque,
Drag and propulsion—
All things the ancients
Dreamed of mastering.

And so, we moderns have:
The smallest of Cessna,
The most enormous Airbuses,
The cavernous military transports,
Such technology and science
To destroy the magic.

Until watering the garden
On a summer evening
And turning to see
A tiny green hummingbird
Stick out his chest in pride
At having mastered
Standing still
While flying.

The Moon and Narcissus

narcity.com

Through wisps of thin streaming clouds,
The last full moon of the decade
Looked down on me and seemed to nod.
Why? I’m not sure.
I thought and tried to puzzle it out.
The decade? Perhaps.
Did this last full moon wish me
To think about this decade?

What ten years can bring:
A wife battling ovarian cancer
For her life and loosing;
Loosing myself along the way
And finding me and loosing me
All over again; A profession left in disgust
For the pleasure of retirement;
A daughter nearly lost and then regained.
Talk about water swirling slowly down the drain.
But it swirls no longer. The ground leveled.
The tub fills. I have finally grown into my skin.

I look to the moon again and she seems to nod
Once more. From somewhere, I smell a faint
Scent of narcissus. Yes, it would be easy.
Play the fool once more and return to that place,
find beauty and comfort In blue skies
And soft grasses by mountain lake,
Breathing in the sweet narcissus scent,
Pretending for a little while
That everything offered was true.
But brimstone to my soul would it be.
Leave the blue skies, the soft grasses, the mountain lake,
The scent of narcissus behind.
This I must do or my soul I would lose.

Illusions

A word or two,
You. 
A word or two,
You.

And on it goes,
Until my throat does close,
And the bar with six screws
That holds my neck bones
Together rubs
At the esophageal tissue there.

And I think maybe a screw
Worked out of the bone.
That would be me—
A screw loose.

And I think
I am just too old,
Too old, for this–
Heartbreak shit.
Like Prufrock,
“I grow old, I grow old.”
Oh, how fuckin’ appropriate.

And then I go walk.
But not “upon the beach.”
What I thought you were,
What I wanted to believe you were,
There still when I return.

Winter Destruction

The cruelest time is winter.

Green, nesting in the folds of flower petals,

That once basked in summer sun

Withers,

Crackling in dryness.

Then comes the stomping,

Crunching of ice.

Innocence destroyed.