Deliverance

Moving ever so slow but moving still,

a cold war grips and binds my soul.

When will Truth return and set Despair to flee?

Like a tunnel-work jeering and blasting, 

darkness invades and burrows deep.

Moving ever so slow but moving still.

Tenderness evades my withered grasp;

Mirth succumbs to grief and droops to frown.

When will Truth return and set Despair to flee?

Cynical dullness shadows mine eyes

as pandemonium denies the warming Sun.

Moving ever so slow but moving still.

Scalding humiliation tempers my tears

and long my cross no more can I bear.

Pray! Truth will return and set me free.

Exhaustion overcomes and drowns me in slumber 

whilst Hope soothes my ragged-born blunder.

Moving ever so slow but moving still

patient Truth will ever be and send Despair to hell.

(~1994)

Bruised Peach

My friends and cousins were handled,

taken before their blushing beauty shined.

Now alone I am

Solitary on my mother tree.

At first overlooked, but time moved through the orchard,

so beauty and purity took hold of me.

Even while men grabbed those beloved so fair, I remained,

an object of hungered admiration.

After all was ravished, mother's arms were bare save me;

a pair of hands once waited
plucked me from my branch

and with tingling sensation turned me round and round.

Over and over I was laid, 

my soft velvet skin crushed and bruised

where each of his fingers stayed.

In apathy, he ravished my delicate fruit. 

Like a wolf, he devoured his prey.

With never a thought of it again,

his teeth scraped to my core and tossed the pit to the ground.

Now alone I lay, a hard wrinkled shell

unwanted
covered by dirt and grass.

Time again passed through the orchard 

and the seasons nourished my soul.

My core began to tingle,
in anticipation it grew.

Looking forward to a new beginning, I stretched from my quiet sleep.

Tender roots searched the ground beneath me, 

a new purchase gave me a secure anchor. 

Sun and rain warmed and cleansed me; they weakened my hard shell

until at last life could no longer be restrained, 

a jubilant green sprout springs from its constraint.

Steady and true my new life grew

straight to heaven, my joy was renewed.

Little did I know that the best beauty lay within.

Now I stand,

with fruit of my own giving joy in every precious bloom.

(revised 2012)

Swans

Swans are beautiful
passing their time in silence
elegant in grace.