Elegy

Now our half-truths ship out

under cover of a cloud-filled sky

the sun you once spoke of

never any friend of mine

can you feel it rain

can you?          

The sleeping bear

All of the followers had gone, sucked up into the girl’s funnel cloud and carried off to god knows where.  What remained lay on the ground, broken.  The restaurant would not be serving again.

I was wondering with a pang of regret where Marietta had gone when a dishevelled figure with a lopsided purple hairdo and an old face limped over to me.  The cruelty in her expression had now become mingled with resentment.  We just stood and looked at each other for a while, until she said, “You think you have won.  But the spell is broken for you, too.”

“I know,” I answered.  “But at least I can live with myself.”

“We’ll see about that,” she replied.  She then disappeared, rather against her will, I thought, into a cloud of foul-smelling smoke.

The enemy within

silence a mocking foe

shrouded in hope

I was waiting where did you go        

you cannot say and I         

I just do not know

from way over there

you do not echo anywhere

I am so

lost

the deadliest place is no place new at all

Haunted

Restless again, Megan wandered over to the window.  Outside she saw a man standing on the corner.  He had thinning blond hair, and he was gazing up at the hotel with a look of inexpressible sadness on his face: Andy.  Megan stepped back into the shadows, not wanting to embarrass him.  She wondered why he had come.  After all of his determined effort to avoid the traps of their past, what would he say to her?  What would she say to him?

With a little frown Andy lowered his head.  He then turned around and walked away.

Megan let the curtain fall back into place, as an overwhelming sense of loss inside of her did bloody battle with acceptance.  It's okay, she told herself.  Or at least it would be.  She just had to hang in there.  Tomorrow this, too, would all just be a memory.

Innocence lost

a triumph but for you 

my one truth worth deceiving

a child’s dream for tomorrow so good           

it deserved to be buried

behind the wall a red she had never seen

Another Place, Another Time

     On her last day at the hospital, the staff presented her with a beautiful cane made from the burgundy trees Kitty loved so much, embellished with shimmering bits of metal.  “You can no longer be what you once were because of the battles you fought for us,” the hospital chief told her.  “But thanks to you, we can be whatever we choose.”

     Kitty smiled a little.  She wanted to tell them it had all been worth it.  The words just wouldn't come.

The promise

I did not run
but I wanted to
I did not expect
only found a way to hope
I did not demand
just made my pleas in secret
I did not call this my last chance
though I knew it to be so
I did not admit defeat
as I held onto tendrils
I might still be bleeding
yet for tomorrow I will fight
as I come flying out of my hole
with all guns
blazing