Reclaiming life

 

She sits, nails bitten to the quick.

Fear chiselled into eyes. He places

his heavy hand upon her thigh,

bruises hidden by time,

grips a little too tight, a wince.

He grins through

cigarette-stained teeth,

faint smell of alcohol.

A scent of death lingers behind him,

as if no good can ever orbit his world,

as she flinches away, instinctively, no fight,

letting her thoughts fly to another sky.

 

Will she, one day, say 'no more'

depart on a different bus?

I wonder, if she knows she can escape

to somewhere beyond the pain, through

the grey slate rain that has poured for days.

 

In hope I pray she runs.

If any deity is listening,

grant her strength, I say

under my breath.

But faded, distant gods

don't ever listen to prayers

when you whisper them

to the shore. For she is sure

he will change when the wind

diverts its course.

 

He leers at the girl

walking the concrete,

through beer-goggle vision.

Fourteen, can't be any more,

and I'm shocked to my core.

Can man fall any more?

And outside lightning glares

through the atmosphere.

An angry god, I think in hope.

And in the strobe lighting

I see enlightenment, frightening,

this is no man, but a demon

in the flesh, drooling as he stares.

 

She sits nails bitten,

no claws to scratch back.

But she looks into his eyes,

sees nothing inside. Nothing worth

a moment of time. No love, no hope.

Just oozing slime of a demon mind,

and she screams inside. No fucking more.

She hands him back the keys to his flat.

And walks into the night.

 

And I smile under fluorescent station light.

And say well done, stay strong.

Reclaiming starlight

 

I sit and I count the stars,

one for every dream I let drift,

one for every hope I missed,

one for every blown kiss

I let float from my grip.

 

A constellation formed

of moments I wish I could re-live.

 

And I watch out over the silence of night.

Heart lodged tight in my mouth.

Try as I might to swallow it,

down, a bitter pill sits,

a lump in my throat, a stone,

a memento of love that couldn’t

ever grow.

 

Why do fairytales have

so many stings in their tails?

 

Where do lonely boats go

when there is no water to sail?

 

if I give my heart, what if it is too frail?

 

I watch reality strip away.

 

A crumbling sky leaves no hope in sight.

 

What if it all starts to fail?

Do I still have enough inside?

 

I let the questions fall to my feet.

For no answers wait on that lonely pathway,

and the needle of time skips a beat,

a song playing on repeat, as reality sews itself

into a beautiful tapestry.

 

And I watch out over the spellbound night.

Her magic dusts a new pathway in sprinkles.

So instead, I search for the heartbeat

inside, and I dance to the rhythm of time,

over the dancefloor she has laid out for me.

 

And I let my arms reach up high,

for I see in my mind’s eye, an answer.

Love is everywhere,

love is the song in the air,

love speaks delicate whispers,

love catches you when you fall.

 

And I grab and I pluck back every tear,

I take back every moment of fear,

every swollen river of hurt,

every painful memory.

 

And now I reclaim the stars.

One for every dream I let drift,

one for every hope I let fall from my grip,

and I fold them into origami swans,

let them float 

across the lakes of my heart.

A waterway of art

where boats are free to sail.

Moth to the moon

 

Your name

lives at the top

of my lungs,

framed in gold,

tied in ribbons

to my heartstrings.

I wish to speak,

but every word

would leak truth upon

the breath of the wind,

creating rainbows in vows

of love that go on.

 

And your face must be

tattooed to my eyelids,

for every night

I close my eyes

and dream of your smile.

That pretty mouth

and sweet gaze, those

luscious locks of hair.

Those open waves,

and I'm lifted away,

to drift upon

an ocean

until I wake.

 

And like a moth

to the moon

I want to fly to you,

the gravity pulling my wings,

and the light showing

a way home,

and I'll roam the night

to feel your light coursing

through my blood.

And like a wolf I howl,

only the sound

that sings out

is your name,

of course.