Poetry

Firestarter
You were
To me
You
Burning
me
Devouring
you
Frozen
in my memory
Our fire
No more flickers
No more licks
Engulfs
Us
No more
Shines
painfully still
Through the ice

Each year slips by
Faster and the length
Of each year
becomes months
Becomes days
I fear
By old age each year
Will become hours
become liquid memories
escaping
between fingers
To evaporate
In to oblivion

Don’t listen to them
You gave me away
before, only
for me to be returned
in shards
inked
with memories
pulsing
with pain (more…)

Am I supposed to
Let
Go,
Is this
Why
I have not found
You?

I have slowly
Stripped
each of my
Criteria
I’m holding on
To the
Last
One

I don’t want to
Let go
To go
beyond my
Comfort zone
And all the world
I have ever
Known

Must I let go
Of my
Last
Criterion

To find
You?

You comment on
the small dainty crystal
clips pinning my scarf in place.

A warmth
blushes from my
heart to the tips of my skin.

She swings caution and
self consciousness
to the azure hemisphere,
And she poses and smiles
and teases your camera.

Photograph courtesy of Umar Ibn Hussain

More than the black eyes and nights spent afraid
More than the marks on her skin that you laid
More than the bruises you told her to hide
More than the illogical rules you forced her to abide
The most cruel thing you did was to language deny
Crippling for life her ability to get by

Unable to articulate to the people around her (more…)