A Poem a Day (583): Betrayal

 
Betrayal can take many forms. Most people will get betrayed at least once in their life; for some, it's once, for others many times. 

Betrayal 

Betrayal, cuts like ice.
Tanglewood and barbed thorns,
existential murmurs of doubt.
An open wound, etched deep,
it sucks time into itself,
lingers, leaves a white trail of scar,
translucent tissue in the light.
 
You can feel it at your back,
a heaviness, a sack of empty.
It follows you as you cross the street,
as you enter a building,
as you try to eat, try to swallow.
It sits like coal in the pit of your being,
seeking to consume you whole.
 
You look at the scar sometimes.
It represents a turning, a dark page,
an entry point into the netherworld,
where Persephone sits and contemplates
the springtime light of the world above.
Sometimes the scar stares back,
a reminder of who you were,
and who you are, written in water.
 
Copyright Vickie Johnstone, May 11, 2023