Rubicon – dVerse Open Link Week 122

Here’s my latest entry into the dVerse Open Link – why not take a look at all of the other wonderful responses?

Please don’t panic – despite the tone of the poem, it isn’t a reflection of how I feel. Offline, I am writing dystopian fiction, so I was pondering how a particular set of characters might feel in this world that I have created for them. This piece came from there, nowhere else.

Let me know what you think…

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– Rubicon –

Render me empty,
Sackclothed and dull
Darker than ditchwater
Coated in oil, rainbow-hued surface
Hidden depths that boil,
As I blunder, lamed, from crisis to fall
Render me empty
Sackclothed and dull

Render me hollow,
Empty my skull
Vacuous, ransacked
Littered with spoil, nutrients stolen
My still waters roil
As I falter, blinded, beleaguered, I fall
Render me hollow,
Empty my skull

Render me soulless,
Eviscerated, null
Grey, empty, mourning
Exhausted with toil, eyes bloodshot red
From life, I recoil
As I stumble, burdened and buried, I fall
Render me soulless
Eviscerated, null

Remembrance Day

I was not just enshrined in black and white
trained to react to a whistle
and launch myself over the top
I didn’t just stare at No Man’s Land
jumping at every falling leaf
nerves shot to pieces, trembling with fear
I was not just shipped hastily to Europe
attempting to aid our Allies
in facing down the Nazi machine
I was not just despatched to the Mediterranean
sand-whipped and sweating
to fight in a theatre far flung from home
I am not a romantic notion of old boys and idealism
telling war stories of camaraderie
I am not decades past.
I am the young man hobbling down the street
I am the hands held out for a bit of spare change
I am the woman bound to a wheelchair
I am the mental health patient facing down the day
I am sitting next to you on the bus.
I am here.
Remember, I am here.

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Tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday here in the UK, and of course Monday is 11th November, Armistice Day.

Copyright - Nicola J Cutts

Copyright – Nicola J Cutts

Who’s That Girl? – dVerse Form for All – List Poetry, Google-style

Here’s my latest entry into the dVerse Form for All – and the great gods of dVerse must have been smiling on my brain-dead brain this evening – I don’t think I could have coped with having to create a triolet or anything of that nature!

So, list poetry – courtesy of Googlism – I hope you enjoy it! I chose me, Freya, as the subject matter, stripping out the many references to Norse gods and mythology, and the other references that just didn’t grab me.  Please visit the other poets’ offerings – they are bound to be fabulous!

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– Who’s That Girl? –

freya is on her way
freya is going out with a bang
freya is a bit different
freya is a trustworthy and loyal character who hides a dark and tragic past
freya is still perched on jackstands in the boat yard
freya is not a very good choice
freya is gone
freya is