Self Medicate

We hung our memories on the racks
and laced our fingers behind our backs
while we wandered the streets
watching them shake their heads,
“Their aching made them weep.”
Our aching made us weep.
Our aching made us weak.

We spat coal from our lungs
and quenched our thirst with white ash.
Oh, didn’t you hear?
We fought our war in Padua
while they buried their heads in the sand.
Wrinkled necks like weathered leather,
they told us, “You’ll be better.”

We could.
Do.
Better.

On the streets, littered gold
we picked our roses without the thorns
and sang to high heaven.
We marched, we marched.
We marched down the road.
We stumbled and fell,
but didn’t rest our weary bones.

Our soles blistered and cracked,
the balm we took announced our woes.
At the gates we stood waiting
for our demons to be purged
and from our lips our cry rang out,
“They would pray for the poor.”
They would pray for us,

the poor.

Here and There

Read me a story,
And I’ll write you a line.
Tell me of a place that I couldn’t find.
Said I’ll be there when you get here,
And that was no lie.
God’s honest truth, I’ve been here since July.

~ A.

Tanked Tanka?

Dew droplets

On blades of grass

Like tiny beetles

Hugging leaves in

Clear morning light

 

My Best Event

Desolation Cave

You needed to break me down,
before you could mould me
into the perfect vessel
to carry your wants,
your desires –
a vessel for your unrealized ambitions.
You found me lacking,
so you changed me.
Little by little,
I felt pieces of myself
fall and fade away…
(Never to return?)
until there was nothing left,
but an echo.
Your ideas, your ideals,
reflecting back from the dark depths of an empty cavern.
A desolate cave.

Image credit: Volkan Omez, Unsplash