Category: relationships

Alice Knows

Betrayal hugs with enthusiasm
public displays of warmth
so charming

Betrayal clutches vials
and pockets the laundry money
and gives a cheeky wink

Betrayal taps the shoulder
and ducks before the reveal
grins like the Cheshire cat

Plays me like a top
spinning, spinning,
and toppling hard

till I’m bent over
head between my legs
glancing backward

Sure that I just saw
the white rabbit,
out of breath

Each word a pill
making me bigger
or smaller

Then off with my head
Betrayal has made me a pawn
till it tires of me and moves on….

(Image my own.)

Washed Ashore

Was willing to settle
even before casting off –
anchor-less, with no compass
to guide me, nor oar to steer

Left fate to the currents –
a vessel adrift, naïve –
trusted those with power
to rescue me, unaware…

of the target vulnerability
made of me, that sharks
circle wayward boats,
certain of a catch

No wonder, when finally
I came ashore, wrecked,
I had lost faith in love,
turned hope to cynicism

Had failed to register
the dangers of sailing
into uncharted waters,
without a life preserver

Ignorant of the skills
I needed to stay afloat
and safe, in a sea where
discernment saves lives.

(Washed Ashore first appeared here in July of 2018. Edited. Image my own)

Wasps

I didn’t know about the wasps
before I had carried my toddler
across the darkened room
laid her in a bed, crawling

Clutched her sleeping body
close to my chest, turned
to retreat, but the swarm
gathered there at the door

My cousin punched a hole
in a wall, unable to discern
the exit in a smoke-filled room.
The hole remains; she doesn’t

Strangers came to her funeral
drawn by the mystery of the girl
(name unknown) who died
such a tragic death, just 18.

How did this invasion happen
how was I remiss in noticing
that this house of potential
was being consumed by threat?

Unlike my ill-fated kin,
I knew where the door was
braved it to save my child
ignored the prophetic warning

Look back at the ruins now –
hers and mine – the patterns
of abandonment, familial
neglect, disinterest a plague

How we women try to please
carry our children through
the flames, choking on
disappointment… hope

A man lit the flame that killed her,
just as a man suffocated my spirit
threads of sanity carrying me
till my mind escaped the wasps

(Ink and watercolour mine)