Showing posts with label dark. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

A Poem a Day (54): Blade

It's a dark one today. I imagined a murderer and what her motivation/past might be. Cheers.

Blade

I wonder in the moment how it fits,
The twisting of this knife in this flesh
That flits and squirms, seeking an escape,
Yet none will come in this foggy gloom
Where my anger shifts like a hurricane,
Sweeping all asunder in its desperation.

Pleading with my conscience so torn
It rips, and I listen to these cries in the dark.
Unhearing, unseeing, my reaction is all,
But I feel it not, so detached as I am.

In this space in time I try to wake myself,
Yet all is lost in this sinking maelstrom.
I cannot rise
Though I seek it,
Wish it as my mind breaks.

Filling the cracks the sticky blood sweeps,
Creating a pool of red to seize the grey.

I spy my reflection seeking to pull me in.

In my protest I stand, gripping the steel edge
That ravaged him here in the silencing
In less time than it took him to be born.

Now he is gone and only I remain,
The watcher,
Contemplating.

Here the darkness plunges,
Writhing with me, caressing me,
Exhausting me until I am but an empty cage,
Yet it is also my prison and here I must stay
Uninvited, unwanted, unmuted in my desire
To kill.

Brushing the knife along the edge of my shirt
I drift slowly away, the alleyway growing shorter.

I am deaf to the rush of traffic and people walking
Who know not what lies here, breathing his last.
I feel his eyes penetrating my back, my skin,
But I will not turn to look at him again, I cannot.
In knowing I will tear apart, sense it, know it.

Walking away is the only thing I know how to do well;
My speciality
Since I was a child,
Since he left me not a child.

The curiosity is too much and I glance back at him;
He who created me in the same degree of dark,
Wrenching away my innocence, abandoning me
With the remnants of my spirit ripped in tatters.

A smile curves itself upon my face in the still breeze;
The moment dives into the ground, rooting me down
Where blackness dances in this pitch heart of mine,
But my heart is his,
Dying where my father breathes his last,
Knowing it was me who extinguished his last sigh.


So our secret will finally die as I turn into the light.

copyright Vickie Johnstone

Saturday, 25 February 2012

Indie book reviews: Double-take Tales by Donna Brown

I really enjoyed reading this trio of dark stories with wry humour and some unexpected twists.

First up is Round Trip, in which an unassuming little £5 note passes through the hands of an interesting mix of characters with different ways of thinking. Like some crazy relay race, this begins with Suzy Taylor. Will it bring good luck or bad? As you're reading, you wonder where the note will go next and if any of the characters will be linked by more than you're seeing at the time. This was my favourite story.

Next is Poison, about an abused and lonely wife who is tempted by the idea of bumping off her husband, who is allergic to nuts. Will she, won't she? I like the style of writing and how the viewpoint of the narrator sucks you in - "There is something about the slow, insidious nature of disappointment that is so damaging." The woman has begun to feel invisible in her husband's life and in her own. How will she go on?

Ending the trio is Ç'est La Vie, in which the police investigate a murder, watched by someone unknown. "They didn't find the body for three days. I know because I watched and waited." The character pulls you in straight away and you find yourself questioning who they are, what they want and what part they may have played. Fascinating study of emotion in relationships. I was totally surprised by the ending.
I read this collection on the train to work and recommend it. 
Where can you buy it? Here...
http://www.amazon.com/Double-take-Tales-ebook/dp/B006HTHAW4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330181115&sr=8-1