They tell me that there are witches in the air
You can see them when day seeps to night And their silhouettes prowl the walls “Sapphire,” others say to me, “stay inside, shut the door.” And I obey, but the witches linger in my mind Slipping around corners, robes trailing the stars Their eyes dazzle and beckon And I watch, envious, for they are free And I am not Until one night, I step out into the humid dusk Tip-toe across the road until I fade into The night, finally with the witches
0 Comments
You would think by now I know
That the soil that builds me up Can only hold so much water Yet, I, Hinrik, still cling to that falsehood Clutch onto it, drowning it with me in the dirt So I sink ever lower and the sun, Abandons me as well But still my roots anchor Fastening to the crumbs below And fragile, patient, sturdy, I prepare to bloom We are small, yet the world is big
I think as I clutch the metal bar The world churns in my stomach But all I see is the red of the tarp My feet are not writhing in the air No, they’re sailing until they land On the silver platform on the other side And the crowd below claps, climbing into my ears But all I can hear is you, Your laughter when we sit Quiet in a place Not here What if I told you the moon is dead?
That the glowing orb you see every night Is collapsing with each tremble in the sky When it darts out from behind the clouds, It’s not smiling, it’s grimacing What will you say? It’s an unfair question to ask on my part I’m not even sure what I would say And I see it crumbling every day Feel the powder chafe my skin Sense its every groan It hurts, you know, but I’m the crazy one So I’ll just nod and sway with the moon Let everyone else continue along Admiring its artificial warmth Shielded from the knowledge that The moon is dead They grovel before me, those blue flowers
Wilting in my golden glare They do not know why they tremble Yet they see my blinding petals My thorns etching the earth The throne I sit on, a tower they cannot climb And I laugh, each cackle raging against …the glimmer of starlight above So far and untouchable My mother says she carries history’s weight
My darling Zoe, tucked under covers, Is crushed beneath that which came before When she coos, swooping with the wind, I hear that heaving of bygone years Strung within that bronze-black hair Tangled with that breath echoing from peach lips “Mother, I am months old and already ancient” And I laugh, my own breath rising until it Tumbles down as tears that fall on her cheeks More weight from above descending And that ageless question: How do I, Lilly, keep the pain from growing? Keep the pain from stabbing the ground, poisoning the roots, grasping the air And no answer falls upon my ears Instead, only a burdened silence remains Until it is broken by my daughter’s breathing They said the stars would be easy
That if you just reached, you could grasp them Clutch onto their sleek yellow bellies And ascend their golden peaks But no one told you about the stairs The stairs that wind this way and that Criss-crossing with the stars And gliding underneath the moon They’re a maze, you know, A maze no one can get through Yet people try, clambering up each cobbled step Their footsteps quaking the Earth below And making it just a bit more necessary to Reach the stars I have a friend who can climb these stairs Not like those people with their monstrous steps That make it harder for everyone else No, not like that at all She climbs, her footsteps light Stumbling at times, a grimace sometimes Yet she never forgets the people below Showering stardust so it all Becomes brighter and less lonely A signal that there is someone who cares I tried climbing up those stairs once My body aching, my breath shaking And I tripped, about to tumble down Back to the Earth But there was my friend Her hand reaching…grasping mine It was then I realized With her hand around mine That those stars glistening around me didn’t matter For the real star was her, Radiating, burning, blazing with life What a simple question
That rubs the back of my throat As my feet thump against green tiles And light glimmers through a doorway Where there resides empty desks Except for one, in the back The largest one A back bent over papers Illuminated by the sun To my students, I can count All the digits in their names Yet for her, I cannot speak eighteen Will you go out with me? The sky was bright in my mind
As racing feet flung dust over concrete And my hands grasped the air To catch the sunbeam falling down Just out of reach While the bell whistled behind me Ordering me to return home And later, I thought, Sitting at my desk, notebook scattered, What might have occurred If I had simply kept running Two birds squat on the dirt
Soil soothing their weary plumage And the sky sets far beyond their heads Turning them small Just specks in the dust Yet, their pleasure glimmers More radiant than the stars |
AuthorI'm Darcy Ridge, creating stories that all revolve around family and identity in a myriad of ways. In the past, I have shared multiple stories and published a novella online. You can find me on Wattpad and many other social media websites. They/them [Image Description: black background with the words "Social Justice and Mental Health Resources" in white in the center /end ID]
Click image for a list of social justice and mental health resources. Archives
January 2024
Categories
All
|