Love’s waters rise
defy the impossibility
of our sedentary walls –
tides and emotions
like sculptors
reshaping the contours
of opposition, softening
the places where hearts meet.
(Art my own)
Hysterical
Crevices fragrant
with rot of genetics –
this path is a minefield
Father’s legacy
has scarred any sense
of valour – tried running
But history is tricky,
catches us winded,
regurgitates tragedy
(Originally appeared on Twitter. Image my own)
Paralysis
Paralysis desecrates floorboards
leaves me suspended…
the skeletons of lost dreams
sprawled out beneath me…
disordered
I am powerless
against the nightly haunts:
a dispirited youth
a righteous mother,
that lonesome child…
Judgment has a long shadow
and slits for eyes…
I don blinders –
tunnelled between
guilt and loathing
This onslaught,
this psychic terrorism
mocks my immobility
forces me to mine
forgotten pith
Survival, instinctual,
steels against the assault
raises prayer
as antidote
An armless attempt
to assert will over fear –
hoping strength restores
vulnerability’s war cry.
(Image mine)
Red Shoes
Mama says wear red shoes
Gives a woman power
But I wobble and stumble
six inches makes me tower
So I trade in my stilettos
for a crimson pair of docs
and much to Ma’s dismay
some days I don crocs
It’s not the shoes that determine might
I tell her, but the soul in the fight.
(Photo: Mom and red accessories – shoes no doubt match. She is posing with her baby brother.)
Avoidance
so seldom
do we address
the issue
frightened, perhaps
by the shadows,
the underlying
darkness –
or is ignorance
a more comfortable
state: a numbing
defiance?
(I once wrote poems for Twitter, but it seems to have lost its charm. Image my own.)
Old Codgers
Idleness fills his hours
as if time knows no limits
I devour moments, afraid
tomorrow will forget me
We see-saw between
treacherous righteousness
and fusty avoidance
Ignoring balance –
the sensible response.
(Written in 2019, I chuckle that little has changed. Image my own)
Reminders
Time hinders
ability,
dictates new
cautions…
It doesn’t mean
we give up;
we just store
possibility
in tucked away
spaces –
as reminders
(Reminders first appeared here August 2018. Image my own)
Black and White
If thoughts could colour our world
then each breath would express
a new hue, discovery a game
of wonder…
But, I sit here, muted
afraid of words too black or white,
afraid I’ll only encounter
sharp edges…
(Tuesdays, I borrow from Twitter @Vjknutson. Image my own)
A Bird’s Eye View
It’s a bird’s perspective I envy –
the ability to perch up high,
balanced no matter the weather,
unaffected by the drama below –
I shall never know such calm,
being afraid of heights.
(Previously published 08/19. Image my own)
Self Portrait in Colours
Found an old diary –
days when I prayed to the angels
painted myself white, believed
in a God that cared about personal
agendas – painted myself pathetic
Took me back to days of heartbreak,
when I pined after a man, unavailable,
painted myself pink – an altruistic heart
yearning after the unrequitable,
willing to sacrifice, change –
painted myself foolish
Read between the lines about a woman
so desperately co-dependent she’d risk it all,
painted herself yellow, projected sunshine,
believed in fairy tale endings, threw away
dignity, sanity – painted herself delusional
Wondered how she’d ever survive,
knew that life intervened in the end,
painted her broken –
and somehow she found strength,
moved on, made better choices,
learned to love herself,
painted herself indigo.
(Self Portrait in Colours first appeared here Aug/2016. Image my own)
One Woman's Quest 