Secret Keepers

(Disclaimer: I am submitting this poem for Reena’s Exploration challenge: horror. The poem arose from a nightmare, and my be triggering for some readers.)

They always take the back roads,
virginal snow-covered lanes
lined with trees: pastoral views

Unmarked routes, out of sight,
use the innocence of landscape
to blot out their dark intentions

Pristine picture perfect scenes
lull the unsuspecting; breath-
taking vistas: secret keepers

The roads still exist in my dreams
the trees like soldiers, stiff and stark
stripped of their magical allure, now

guard the memories, painted red
with loss of purity; I had not
guessed the danger of woods

child mind incapable of conceiving
what wolves roamed in nature
the blood of their victims crimson

stains forever etched in silhouette
the shrillness of their screams
now silent echoes in the night.

(Secret Keepers first appeared here September of 2016. Art my own.)

A Dog’s Heart

I am a dog, or so
horoscope tells me…
certainly been referred to
as the mother of…

Private lives fascinate me
tenderness tossed away
in the courtship process

Some prefer on screen
interaction – erecting
false intimacy

I am tired of it all
bark the right of refusal
no encores for me…

…except I’m a damn dog..
man’s best friend, so they say
loyal companion… shoot!
Lend me that crystal ball…

(A bit of light humour for this first day of October. Inspired by Eugi’s Causerie weekly prompt: crystal ball. Image my own.)

Remain Steadfast

Illusory this ideation of separation
intricate the webs that bind us

Politicians focus on the holes
pander to the vacuous –

Seekers resonate with connection
consciousness raising awareness

Remain steadfast protestors
your vibrations wide-reaching.

(submitted for Reena’s Exploration challenge: prompt the featured image.)


Maladjusted

Immersed in trauma
I excel – bleed compassion

Can cut to the chase
employ know-how

Remain cheerful
whilst inhaling paranoia

Determined to connect
square the issues

But offer me kindness
touch with intent

and I will withdraw
gingerly inept

unaccustomed as I am
to Love’s cosmos.

(Submitted for Eugi Causerie’s weekly prompt: cosmos. Image my own.)