The Girl on the Trapeze

13/07/2020 –  Poem a Day Compilation


I was five when I first fell in love.

The costumes. The performers. The show.

It sparked my childish imagination

And distracted me from all reality.



But the one that really caught my eye

Was the girl high up on the trapeze.

She flew with the grace of an angel

And captured my heart so young.



Her smile was utterly contagious,

Dazzling as she twisted and turned,

And I was mesmerized by her motion,

Oh, so far up above my young head.



I wanted to be just like her

Soaring above the crowd every night

Not a care in the world to worry about

And so glamorous she appeared to be.



But that was a long time ago,

And I have learned so much since then;

Though every time I see a circus tent

I am five years old again.

Poison

12/07/2020 -  Poem a Day Compilation



It was May, 2004

And I stood outside the Enmore

Taking in the lights of Newtown

Waiting for the doors to open.



You’d bought the tickets so long ago

When we were better together

So, tell me why I was there

Waiting for you to arrive.



You were always late.

It was one of my pet peeves.

And you knew it annoyed me

More than almost anything.



You loved that band and would say

“Every rose has its thorn”

Whenever I brought it up

But you were more thorn than rose.



This night out was the last gasp,

The last nail in the coffin perhaps,

Of a relationship that was already dead

But just hadn’t realised it yet.



Life loves a tragedy, I suppose,

And we were absolute proof of it,

Two big personalities on a collision course

Destined to burn up worlds in our wake.



That night was supposed to give us

Something to believe in –

A shared past to cling on to

And rekindle what we had.



But there was nothing left to salvage

From this car crash of a relationship,

And standing in that line I knew

That this would be a last hurrah.



You used to call me your fallen angel.

I was really a bird whose wings you’d clipped,

Wanting desperately to be uncaged,

Set free in the big wide world.



Looking back, I can see tight you clung

To the idea that I was this perfect girlfriend

Who made you look good by extension

But in reality we ripped each other apart.



Life goes on, even when our hearts break,

Because we know what we deserve,

Even when that realisation hurts,

And being second best is not it.



I’ve lived so much more since that night

Without you holding me back

Or telling me it wasn’t worth my time

And making me afraid to try,



Now I ride the wind wherever it takes me –

I’ve seen the world without you,

And met the most interesting people,

All because I found myself in losing you.



You lived in your little bubble

And it was suffocating me

You said if I loved you, I’d stay

And maybe you were right.



I won’t forget you,

You were my biggest mistake,

But one I needed to make to grow

And find out who I was inside.



On that cool autumn night

Way back, over a decade ago,

I found out you were my poison

And I walked through those doors alone.

Riding on the Bus

11/07/2020 - Poem a Day Compilation



We all know of Rosa Parks,

Who refused to give up her seat,

But what of the others who sat

In defiance just like her?



What of the likes of Claudette Colvin

Who also refused to move

At the tender age of just fifteen

And warrior wise beyond her years?



Could perhaps we could remember

Eighteen-year-old Mary Louise Smith

Who would not give up her seat

And fought segregation to the end?



What of proud Jeanetta Reese,

Who was intimidated by scared white folk

After such an act of public defiance,

That she could not take the stand?



And how many would know the name

Or the story of Aurelia Browder

Who refused to give up her seat

For a white bus rider to assume?



So, while we may remember

The name of Rosa Parks so well,

Remember, yet, those other names

Who fought for freedom, too.

Blind Date

10/07/2020 –  Poem a Day



Waiting patiently

(Well, as patiently as I can),

The suspense killing me.



The expectation rises

As I sit in hope

Of what is to come.



All the predictions

Come to a head

As the anticipation swells.



Then I see her face.

My Dressing Gown

09/07/2020 –  Poem A Day Compilation


I have a dressing gown

That I got for Mother’s Day

And it’s the best thing in winter

Because it’s so warm and soft.



But often I cannot put it on

Because it’s been soundly claimed

By a furry little friend called Misty,

My beautiful but tubby cat.



If I happen to leave it on my bed

Instead of hanging it up,

She will knead it into a little nest

And fall fast asleep.



So, tonight I’ll grab a jumper

Instead of my comfy robe,

And leave the little devil

Because she’s just too cute to move.

Numb

08/07/2020 - Poem a Day Compilation



I looked at her face,

Contorted in grief,

Tears streaming down her cheek,

Pitiful wails escaping her quivering lips.



She was rocking slowly,

Curled up in the chair in the corner,

Her sadness palpable

In the stillness of the room.



She couldn’t look at him,

Laid out on the bed,

IV lines still attached

And the curtains drawn.



She had her face turned away from him,

Not quite facing the wall where I stood,

My back leaning against the cold concrete,

But she didn’t see me there.



She was lost in her own pain,

The discomfort of so many years

Of hospital trips and medications,

Seeping out of her now.



She was mourning her loss

But angry at her relief

That it was finally over

And she didn’t want him to see.



She didn’t want him to know

And, at the same time,

She knew he could never know

And it was tearing her apart.



She wiped her face with the back of her hand,

Sniffed and took a deep breath,

Trying to compose herself

As she sat up in the chair.



She could always muster that strength,

Much more than I ever could.

I don’t know where it came from

But I knew that she’d need every ounce of it.



She reached out her hand, damp with tears,

Taking mine to steady her,

And she stood,

Her head lifting in defiance.



She was a tower, a beacon,

All five foot nothing of her,

And she walked out of that room

With all the grace of the queen herself.



She thanked the nurses at their station

And I stood behind, awkwardly,

As they explained what would happen next

And offered their condolences.



She listened intently,

Nodding but not speaking,

As tears continued to leak from her eyes,

Against her will, it seemed.



She walked to the car

But she could not open the door,

Her hand frozen on the handle

And I felt her crumbling before me.



I held my mother as a child

And I knew all that was waiting for me,

But not just yet.

Right then, I was numb.

The Sound of Silence

07/07/2020 – Poem a Day Compilation


Do you hear that sound?

It is the sound of a million voices,

Silent in the dark,

Afraid and confused and betrayed

By the noise inside their heads

That won’t pass their lips,

That can’t be heard in the night,

That wells up inside them

And chokes them

While those with the power

To yell and scream and shout

Do nothing in this world

But make endless noise

Drowning out the silence

Of another voice lost –

Another muzzle fitted,

Another story untold –

When we desperately need to hear

And to listen

To those who are silent

To those with no voice

To those who hide in the shadows

Beyond the safe spaces and the tears

Because in this world they cannot shout

Over the static that surrounds them

And there is no blood curdling scream

Until it is too late,

(As the scream falls silent

And you wonder why they didn’t speak,

Why they didn’t cry out,

Why no one heard)

And the yelling never stops,

It never goes away

It echoes and repeats

In the silence of the forgotten;

And the terror that lives in that silence

Sucks air out of lungs,

Rips flesh from bones

And lets blood run dry

Because it has no answers

Only silence, and more silence,

And there,

In the sound of silence,

It hides, and it grows,

Consuming everything –

All that betrayal,

All that confusion,

All that fear –

Until there is only silence

And silence is the only sound.