Marianne Daniels

Walk alone

by Marianne Daniels

Sunday 23rd May 2010 7:57 pm

Sympathy, why must I walk alone?

The tears, the hunger, the thrown stone,

the fault of emotion bleeding monarchs of madness in their minds;

who are they to say I deserve the ripe singe

of the lonely tongue?

I tore myself,

I swallowed my health, and wild eyed

waded in the air

for arms to grab and take me home.

Love, why must I walk alone?

I fell and fell and fell and fell

in those hours that repent like hell,

static and stagnant, in want of space

to be one that mothers

your hollow cry, tears like daggers

plunging me into a well of hate,

no longer a person

but a country you evacuate.

Oh, sentence, why do you imprison me alone?

A cough of dust on bone,

I deserve no fresh embrace, no touch.

I walk through shattered glass

and each shard reflects

that you were the first to leave me alone;

the margin that spirals my epitaph

and beats my head on stone

and lets me know

that I will never be given home.

◄ Pandora's Box

The Rib ►

Comments

Marianne Louise Daniels

Tue 25th May 2010 09:25

i did mean 'fault line'...
why can't a poem really peck your head with its demands? hee hee...
it SHOULD be free game... thanks for the comments.

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Mon 24th May 2010 21:45

These prior comments are fulsome, and worthy. I think 'fault' is used like 'fault line' where lava/fire/disruptive emotion break through the earth/conscious restraints. The beauty of your work is symbolism which is free game, so to speak.

darren thomas

Mon 24th May 2010 19:23

Hi Marianne - I really enjoyed reading this; it actually 'feels' poetic, with its classic sense of morosity.

I'm with Ray though with the line -

"the fault of emotion bleeding monarchs of madness in their minds"

cf. 'emotion's fault, bleeding madness of monarchs in their minds'.

It's less demanding to imagine someone 'bleeding madness' than it is 'bleeding monarchs' - it just depends which noun you wish to modify.

I enjoy your writing - there is something there that appeals to me.

Ray Miller

Sun 23rd May 2010 21:21

Hello Marianne. Some very powerful and vivid phrases, I loved "no longer a person but a country you evacuate".But "the fault of emotion bleeding monarchs of madness" maybe asks a bit too much of the reader?This reader, anyhow!

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