A Poem a Day (67): Sweeping

Written for Dan Mader's 2minutes go writing exercise...

Sweeping

It slides and it

Slips

This thing by the wayside,

This sliver

Of a lie

Speckled with dust;

A shimmer of an age

Fast vanishing into air

Spring steps out

With a sigh

Upon a blackbird

Cast adrift in a

Faint blue sky,

While all else ends in

A crimson-coloured red

These times are made

For changing,

This life by the wayside

Cast in dust,

Clothes worn too long;

Fragile bones ache

In this rigid earth

Discoloured and dank.

Copyright Vickie Johnstone, November 10, 2017

A Poem a Day (66): Pressure

Written for Dan Mader's 2minutes go writing exercise...

Pressure

The biggest lies we tell ourselves,

Shrinking our souls into endless shapes,

Fitting, squeezing, depriving them of air,

Fearing to step outside these strict lines

Boundaries, fences, walls, cages,

The constrictions we construct within,

Conflicts of our own making undone

For we feel lost without them

Built to protect

Built to last

Built to tighten

Built to stifle

Freedom lies beyond our fears,

So they tell us, so we know, yet

Under pressure we struggle,

Sinking beneath the feeble self

Step outside where the crow cries,

Walk between the shadows crept,

Where the sky yawns possibilities

And towers tumble to the ground.

Copyright Vickie Johnstone, November 10, 2017