Category DVerse Open Link Night

Transient

freyathewriter 27 Comments 
How can you prove something didn't happen
when the only witness is you?

When you’re the one curled up on the hexagoned floor
watching the blood seep through

the cotton weave of your favourite skirt
the one that caressed the slight mound

of your stomach, the one you’d hidden
for all those years, flattening it with

girdle pants to be just like the girls
with concave femininity, the ones

who glanced sideways at your tree trunk thighs
sneering as they passed you by

tree trunk thighs with muscles of water
as you scrabble around on the bathroom floor

scooping up blood rivulets in shaking fingers
drawing faces in the most intimate places

imagining eyes of an unavailable daughter
laughter of a boy running towards you

and your arms ache, your stomach burns
your heart expands and the lesson you learn

as your defective womb leaks all over the floor
is: this isn’t for you, it’s too late and too soon

for the world to welcome another like you

Over at dVerse Open Link Night, we are invited by our congenial host Grace to share a poem in response to the prompt she has set, or something else entirely. This week, I have decided to go for something else.

If you would like to take part and also have the opportunity to read other poets’ work, please click on the link, read the post and dive on in!

(Image by Jean Marc Pampuch at Pexels).

Vicious and Kind

freyathewriter 18 Comments 
We are vicious and kind
pendulum-swinging between
one          and the          other
over coffee and cereals
in expectation of bills we can’t pay
and no windfall from a lottery we never took part in

It won’t be too long before one of us walks out
leaving our keys in the dish on the hall table
not going for good
but just because working for the corporation
and the wished-for weight of external expectation
is, in that moment
more meaningful than launching a lifeboat
to rescue our foundering relation-ship

and thank god, it gets us out of each other’s way
healing the bruises
for one more day
for now

I might get a bonus
so I can pay the locksmith to break into the house again
you made me forget my keys
and where the hell were you last night anyway?

And so we rattle on
marking time until we couldn’t care less
numbed by indifference and backs turned at night
blinking at that last box of books we can’t care to fight over
one of us walking through rooms
echoing with apathy
wondering how it all went wrong

I stand at the door
waving like I always did
but you drive away
not looking back
you don’t remember our old routine
or choose not to repeat it anymore
and that’s it

The end.

It’s Open Link Night over at the dVerse Poets Pub, which means we can either share a poet of our choice, or be inspired by the optional mini-prompt. I chose to share a poem I wrote some time ago, accompanied by this image of a screaming baby bird, which is part of a large painting I created, also some time ago.

As they say, the past is another country,

Please do join us over at dVerse if you love writing and reading poetry. It’s a lovely community and the hosts will give you a warm welcome.

Murder – dVerse Open Link Night

freyathewriter 33 Comments

Image – author’s own

It descends suddenly, the veil of darkness,
is it not the same for you?
my vitriol rises, my bile erupts, a
conviction of your subhuman, less-than status
that ignites my thirst — 
killing overwhelms me, irresistibly.
under the circumstances, I must be excused (I will not beg),
the nature of the beast wears a
cloak spattered with guts and hatred
of which I have become overly fond — 
war has dehumanised and mechanised me
is it not the same for you?
nothing is beneath me anymore 
but the bones and viscera on which I tread.
an empty shell am I,
act kindly and I will carve a knife-smile in your face,
of course, before I bestow 
murder upon you.

This poem was inspired by the Albert Einstein quote below, each word of which begins each line above.

“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”

It was written in response to much that I have learned about the world since I watched “The World at War” with my parents when I was growing up. This 26 episode British TV series, narrated by Laurence Olivier, chronicles the Second World War and is widely acclaimed — the series focuses on how life and death throughout the war years affected members of the armed forces, civilians, concentration camp inmates and other victims of the war. Images from this series have never left me, all these year later.

*******

Tonight is Open Link Night over on dVerse, hosted by the lovely Grace. Tonight there is no theme for us to follow, just write a poem on whatever subject suits our fancy, and submit it for others to read.

There is always something to learn and discover, so why not hop on over to the Open Link Night and read the wonderful poetry that is on offer? Or, if you’re feeling daring, why not take part yourself?

Happy reading!