A Poem a Day (115): Joker

Written for JD Mader's 2minutesgo website – head over there to write, read and comment every weekend... I watched The Joker on Friday. Dark and uncomfortably brilliant. 

Joker

When the deluge breaks he lets it sweep

Over him,

A burning caress he once yearned for

And now despises, invents a name.

These emotions he keeps locked inside,

Beyond him,

Feelings wretched, still wrecking.

In this fiery red glow he will dance,

Papering limbs in this cold numbness

Scourging through him, day in, day out,

Inside him.

It is his tempest, his alone; a jumbled mind

Cast adrift, signing, searching for insight

He can never hope to find.

And he knows he cannot be helped.

The murmurs will never calm, be quiet.

These blurred echoes of long jagged days –

A boy, a lost mother, a yard stripped dark,

Doors locked, pain, pitch black pain

Upon him.

This rain whips, cleansing scars etched so

Deep, reminding him of what was once,

Who he was once, the man he failed to

Become. Becoming a little less each day.

When the deluge calls, he dances a little,

Edging away from the fire serenading him

To come outside.

Copyright Vickie Johnstone, November 9, 2019