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
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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? |
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]
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