ShipwreckedI came upon a shipwreck Where the ocean meets the shore And I listened for any signs of life But all I could hear were the waves Lashing furiously at the jagged rocks in their way. I fought my way against the relentless wind And around the dunes that suddenly appeared before me when the moon rose Taking cautious steps so I wouldn’t end up sinking into the endless holes that might trap me As I headed towards the battered ship As I approached, my skin prickled from the ghostly aura Permeating the air And with no sign of life I climbed gingerly onto the broken boards Making my way down the ship ladder To the deck below. A wildly swinging door Beckoned me into a cabin Where I had to crouch down to get through the twisted doorway And I realized that I knew this place. My eyes searched the room And landed on the cherry desk In the corner. I ran my hands along the polished wood As I had done many times before Until I accidentally knocked a pile of photographs onto the floor. When I bent down to pick them up My heart stopped when I saw his face I knew him even through the years and desperate attempts to forget And I closed my eyes as memories flooded over me Slamming me onto the floor. When I opened my eyes I became aware that the picture that had landed face up Was the one when we had first stopped looking at each other Already heading our separate ways before we understood what was happening And a surge of sadness washed over me as I looked up Aware that I was still mired in the wreckage Of what had once been And the water was seeping inside now And I knew it was time to find a way out Before I drowned. Across the BridgeI take a tentative step And then another Across the rickety wooden bridge Over the bog Where it appears that everything has died And the water is murky And foreboding. Although there should be a few hours of daylight left The darkness creeps in stealthily Like a Ninja Counting on no one noticing Until it’s too late. My pace quickens As a chill travels up my spine And I look to the sky for solace Or rescue But it is grey and dreary Offering no respite from my thoughts. An icy tear rolls down my cheek Freezing halfway down And I wonder why I can’t feel anything But the cold that snakes down through my bones And invades my psyche. I yearn for spring And new life And hope Wanting to believe so desperately That things will be different If only I can be reborn. But now the darkness uses its familiar tricks to seduce me With the empty promises that it will protect me And hide me from the demons that tear at my clothes And rip through my soul. I long to succumb As temptation overwhelms me But I resist and plunge through the thickets of barren trees Ignoring the branches scratching my face And shredding old wounds until they are laid bare Until I finally reach the open space where nothing grows Just as the sun peeks through and nods at me As it disappears from the horizon in a blaze of glory And the shadows reign. I Walk On the MoonWhen life on Earth Becomes overwhelming The stars tumble down to me And lift me onto a glittering trail That stretches past the sky Far away from this world So troubled and broken I walk on the moon To find peace. When I look out at our blue water planet And see its majesty I wonder how it can be a place of hope And love And dreams But at the same time a place of chaos And greed And destruction. Is there another creature That blithely decimates their home Watching the smoke and the flames That continue to lick at reinforced gates And multi-paned windows Allowing it to burn down to the ground? The silence of the moon helps my brain tune out the constant clamor in my head And I gaze at the dazzling blue pearl spinning through the expanse And see the miracle Wishing that every human being could come here and do the same And understand that we are each specks in a moment of time And the things that matter Are all that matters That after our physical form is gone Traces of who we were Will continue to reverberate Throughout time and space Like echoes bouncing off canyons And what we’ve destroyed Will never come back. After each journey While my illusory exterior may look the same The configuration of my brain is constantly readjusting And the shape of my thoughts has changed Knocking around inside my head And the frantic blare of the sirens allows me no peace As I look at the scenes on the screen Filled with the ruin of our planet The unprecedented storms And vanishing species And disappearing habitats And the beauty dissolves to nothingness And I know That silence about what is happening is death And life must find a way To vanquish the inertia Of hopelessness Because otherwise There will soon be nothing left But the memories Of what once was. Empty ShellTsunamis of grief hit with no warning Splattering shards of her heart All over the planks beneath her feet Engulfing every inch of her body And there are no breakwalls to contain their fury. She’s left reeling As she is rolled about By wave after wave Unable to find her footing Drowning in the torrents of bereavement and emptiness Where there is no air left to sustain her. The wind carries her cries away Tossing them into the sea where no one can hear And she is flung to the ground As the void Is now a physical presence that overwhelms her Sucking the strength out of her body and her mind Until she is as frozen as a calcified fossil And with the next battering swells All that’s left is an empty shell Washed away with the tide. The Edge of NowhereOnce there was a time When open roads lay before us Where wide expanses of possibilities filled the open sky And life was a banquet To be ravished and savored And time was inconsequential. We were drawn towards the boundless horizon Filled with prisms of light And we tasted every fruit in the garden Letting the juices run down our necks And we didn’t even notice The stains. And then one day On the cusp of the inhalation of a breath And the exhalation of a sigh Roadblocks popped up everywhere And we had to slam on the brakes So we didn’t go flying off the precipice That suddenly loomed right in front of us. But we found ourselves watching in horror As others disappeared over the edge Tearing our hearts into jagged shreds of confetti And we broke, knowing they weren’t coming back. And yet we still need to be rattled out of our torpor So we can stop hanging on to the belief That the world we’ve longed to explore Is waiting for us like an oyster perched in a shell For whenever we decide we’re ready And that perfect love might drop out of the sky one day If we just keep looking up. We insist that we know We won’t live forever But we can’t really conceive of a time That the earth will revolve without us And those who we love will go on living their lives in our absence Instead of spinning out of their orbit Over the edge of nowhere Untethered without us. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary We have the arrogance to imagine That the fate of every other human on this planet Will not be ours And that the hourglass won’t run out Before we grab onto life with both hands Taking fierce, lusty bites from it While there’s still time. Nancy Machlis Rechtman has had poetry and short stories published in Your Daily Poem, The Whisky Blot, Grande Dame, Impspired, Trouvaille Review, Fresh Words, The Writing Disorder, Discretionary Love, and more. She wrote freelance Lifestyle stories for a local newspaper, and she was the copy editor for another paper. She writes a blog called Inanities at https://nancywriteon.wordpress.com.
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