Is it the stillness
of the rock pool
that draws me
again and again?
Authority eludes –
is not my own –
I dodge hawk-eyed
critics, am weighted
down…struggling
to resurface…
Crave tranquil
company, a chance
to breathe…
unseen…
Nature always the key
(Image my own)
Ingrained in me
this flight
eye on the future
the periphery
closing in.
Husband urges me
forward, but where
this road leads
I do not know
Connected to self
open, escaping into
the vast expanse
becoming fluid
alive, nurtured
I have been spit out
by life so often,
taught to be taut,
it’s hard to plunge,
let go of the past
and just swim.
(Submitting for my weekly challenge: peripheral. Image my own.)
Escape sits
stalled,
waiting,
one small key
an ounce of courage
and off I’d go,
a wake of water
heralding my exit.
Instead,
I retreat –
courage resides elsewhere,
such exhilaration
belongs to youth –
will ponder adventure
another day –
wait,
stall,
escape
into a nap.
(Written for Twenty Four’s: 50 word Thursday. Photo supplied with challenge.)
Slippery performed
and my eight-year-old
heart applauded
cheered when he escaped,
mourned the capture,
prayed for flight’s courage
but survival skills
eluded – was certain
I would starve, die
in a cave where
animals would gnaw
on my bones, and
family, unconcerned,
would sigh and say:
She’s just being Slippery.
(Slippery was the name of a sea lion who performed at a local’s children’s attraction in the 60’s. He escaped into the Thames River and was captured again. I can remember being torn between sorrow for him that he didn’t want to be there, and sorrow for us that he didn’t love us the way loved him.
It’s Open Link Night at dVerse, and I am also submitting this for 50 Word Thursday, Fandango’s: guess, and Ragtag Community’s prompt: slippery.)
Aging, I am
and disabled,
unreliability
trending
Escape is proposed
my oozing scars
beg a stand
discover determination
This slumbering
has become impulsive
need discipline
to quiet the pain
I am whiny
self-mothering
counselling bedrest
prone to coddling
need to shake off
this disoriented
weakened state –
escaped is proposed.
Cruising fills my fantasies –
reveling in life, loved ones in tow,
prideful, excited –
sailing past Mecca,
places of service,
relinquishing embellishments,
fully alive!
Conceived in strife –
a familial intrigue
with the macabre –
I am dragged along
treacherous passages,
abandoning joy for desolation,
preoccupied with loss of life.
Reviled, I retreat
flee, crying out in alarm,
cannot tolerate
flesh-eating
walking dead
Crave restoration
of equilibrium,
a life purpose
worthy of visibility
am stalked
by regrets –
a damaged child
seeking baser needs-
elude her!
Launch this ship;
sail into the exotic –
escape!
Responsibility
anchors me,
secrets and wounds
regress – I am
the living dead,
locked out,
focus crowded
need a new defense
if I am to intentionally
recapture relation
ships.
One Woman's Quest 