Author: VJ

Permission to write, paint, and imagine are the gifts I gave myself when chronic illness hit - a fair exchange: being for doing. Relevance is an attitude. Humour essential.

Fatigued

Brazen sunlight
accosts my eyelids
bruising my senses

I rail against this day
rising an affront
to my body’s begging

Sleep a little longer
she moans, daylight
holding no sway
over heavy limbs

The sparring has begun –
a daily ritual of coaxing
and empty promises

I cannot will away the illness
that champions this ring –
batters me every time

Am I heroic or a fool
to think that mind
can defeat matter
that will can eliminate
inertia?

The brashness
of morning light
no balm for
endless exhaustion.

Nature of Relations

Is this estrangement self-imposed
or does my awkward rapture
set me aside?

More engaged in recording nature
than in ordinary banter –
find the portal to human interaction
passing questionable

throngs focus on such peculiarities
while I attempt sketching relations
trees akin to cousins,
and birds happily possessing my soul

we are escapees –
alternate beings
charged with renewal.

(Sketch my own)

In Situ

Upgrading –
setting new standards
learning anew

Kin/ heritage
pursues me –
influence
and legacy

Timid concerning
the unspoken
the understated

Seduction courts
a response –
I am flush with possibility
basking in attention

But God is calling me home –
reminds me of mortality
humbles me in situ

I am already engaged
passion in the moment
dalliances redundant

(Self portrait created blind with acrylic paint and palette knife)