Survivors Poetry

One for Sorrow
Magpie (Pica pica) They steal eggs and sometimes take juvenile birds

A thief in the night
lusting
for the blood of innocence

Devouring her weakness
he strips plump flesh
off the soft young bones

Night after night the plunderer
steals a little more
of her succulent naivety..

..picking over the now brittle carcass
for a last morsel
of youth

‘til all that is left
are the
broken bones of her childhood.

The screaming mute
Conscious thought frozen
in a moment of fear
retreats to safety
locked away
quietly

silent
on the surface
paralysed and mute
but shouting and screaming
painfully, incoherently, internally.

ANGER

TELL ME A SAFE WAY
a low menacing growl
the eyes flash
the lips curl
for a snarl
TO EXPRESS THIS POWER
the growl turns into a roar
the teeth flash
the lips curl
back to a snarl
THAT’S BUILDING INSIDE ME
the roar turns into leap
the claws flash
the lips curl
for the kill
READY TO EXPLODE
the leap turns into ripping flesh
skull and bones flash
the lips curl
around gushing blood.

Memories I live

Sick in the pit of my stomach
Listening, dreading
Those creaking floorboards

Turning over, eyes closed
Trying to breathe - silently
Whilst sleeping wide awake

Revulsion sweating through every pore
Feelings I don’t understand
My head exploding with guilt

This beautiful body damaged
By self hate, planted by the intruder
Deep in my fertile subconscious

Poems by Mary