February 11, 2025Poem

Asleep at the back

lossgriefcitypoliticstimemortality

Asleep at the back

Breaking chains

The rust of bones

Bent in toil

The scourge of weariness

Creeping over

The darkling edge

Never too settled

The fear of reprisal

A death hand

Looming.

Prisoners all

Trapped in circumstance

Broken by degree

Systems of bartering

Harboured in grief

Held in proximity

To freedom

Spied through the cracks

In belief

As old stories

Wear paper thin.

There is nothing

To see

But the space between

What is there

The fullness of glare

And what lies

Below the fault line

Stir it up

Turn the tide

Lift the dust

It is salted in faerie

We have lain too long

Change position

To conquer the tide

It will turn

In good time

For supper.