
(Submitted to Fandango’s Daily prompt: mirror)

(Submitted to Fandango’s Daily prompt: mirror)
Played us with hopeful
promises – glimpses of calm –
our tyrant father.
(Added for Fandago’s Daily prompt: Control)
(Written for Ronovan’s Weekly Haiku Challenge #2 Hope/Tyrant)
Freedom is four hundred and fifty square feet of moveable tin, wheeling down the highway, destination unknown. It is long walks through exotic forests, where focus lasts only as long as it takes to capture an image. It is the privilege of sleeping and waking according to whim, routine an estranged concept. It is the breeding ground for creativity – passion unleashed – and it is tainted by the hue of loneliness, the stark awareness that ties are strained, and those left behind feel abandoned.
Freedom’s highway calls –
hearts follow, passions flow, flee
guilt’s far-reaching pull.
(Written for DVerse’s Halibun Monday: Â Complexity of Freedom prompt.)
Time
exists…
…in moments
fleeting
intervals
that pass…
a vast ocean
stretching…
we are but tiny sails
the water pulls
I am tethered
prefer concrete
to uncertainty
not ready to launch.
Made of steel,
I have withstood
your darkness,
borne the blackened
traces of your hardened
words upon my soul,
have carried for you,
endured the weight
of your substance –
lack of substance –
this charred shell
all that remains,
tarnished metal
walls, contents
now empty.
(Daily Addictions daily prompt is scuttle)
Absence of table
echoes in a room
reserved for its
central role –
I am at a loss,
no explanation
proceeding
this disappearance
have just woken
from a slumber
deep, to this hole
in certitude
grasp for answers
wonder at significance
if I’ve missed signals
question permanence
left with silliness
of chairs, the mockery
of dust – balled
fragments revealed
stand at kitchen counter
nibbling, dubious
unable to relax –
the table is gone.
(Inspired by Steve Still Standing‘s  “An Exercise in Poetic Styles”)
Even the river bleeds –
fiery frigid essence –
earth’s watery voice.
***
It is the river
that calls, waters flowing
through my veins
and I am the banks
steadfast in my holding
the razor sharp edges
like liquid steel
eroding my earthen
postures, challenging
the hardened places.
To stroll amongst giants –
straight-backed arrows
whose green bows aim skyward –
a directional pull so uplifting
that earthly matters diminish –
this is contentment.
How bright is the soul
that dares to stand alone,
who gives voice to injustice,
who is willing to sacrifice
self for a higher purpose…
What song might we sing
if such a spirit moved us?
The initial spoonful –
salted caramel cool –
consoles bitten tongue,
slides down burning throat:
appeasement for churning gut.
Each spoonful savoured
sweetness countering bile,
dark chocolate shavings
as bittersweet as the emotion
being pushed down, buried
Bruised by conflict,
words ineffectual,
ice cream an unworthy
compensation, cravings
turn to salty reprieve.