Tag: heartbreak

When Love Fails

Slammed by expectations
silenced by your rage
the hero in me exhausted

I can’t make it right, my love
when communication is forbidden
and the voices in your head
hold us both hostage

I’m clinging to memories
resolved to leave here
integrity intact
identity intact

The mayhem in your words
has cut the ties –
I know where I stand
mental health at stake

I’m setting my intention
walking away –
will find my own footing
and hope you don’t forget

That love always holds answers
and despite my somber exterior
the back door to my heart
is always open

(Art my own)

Heart Bleeding

Even lamplight cannot penetrate
the obliteration of blizzard white –
the icy absence between us.

Red was the colour of our passion,
now red is the colour of this box
words spoken in confinement

condensation blurring sensibility –
the muffled sound of ringing,
too cold, too frozen in disbelief

to hang up,
move on,
seek warmth.

(Inspired by the image supplied by Willow Poetry for her weekly challenge: What Do You See?)

Defeated, I Turn Away

Back rested against post,
the figure guards the median –
poised with cardboard sign,
a simple plea for help.

Positions himself amid
gridlocked targets – usually,
I look away, disquieted,
but today I do not, wondering

what I could possibly give
this man that would lift him
from his plight –
surely others have tried,
and, yet, here he is
day after day
the same –

and
I am struck
with realization –
that we are not
all that different
he and I

both trapped in unhealthy
patterns, having adopted
personas that once served –
but now weigh heavily
with the stench of permanence

Does he not know it’s all
an illusion – a game we play
wherein we are the pawn?

I don’t know it either –
turn away, defeated.

(Frank is hosting at dVerse tonight and the jive is frustration and heartbreak.)

Unwanted Visit

The years have done their damage,
resentments, like border guards,
line up between us…

and then you just show up,
as if somehow that makes you the better person,
as if your presence will make me forget, forgive

and I fumble for the right words,
attempt graciousness, even as I’m struggling
to feed the hurt, coddle the innocence lost

you hurt the deepest core of me,
the child, barely able to stand on her own,
the burden of her frailty heavy enough

what amusement must you derive
from revisiting our torturous past,
I cannot fathom – all too much for me.

Off-Track

Met him on the way to tomorrow,
pitched a tent on his front lawn,
both ignoring impermanence.

How is it the heart’s drumming
blots out the soundness of mind,
negates former promises to self?

The weather changed and with it
sentiments cooled, tempers heated,
a tempest ensued, she packed up

hitched a ride on a passing train
headed in the wrong direction,
her heart still a discordant drum.