-1Revelations
Rukaya Godfrey
Elm
Sun-touched leaves of elm do glitter and sway.
They reach with a glide like soft hands and float gently on the air.
Sweet song is moved within at so gay a sight.
Etching Shadows
Shadows creep from the darkness
to feed on torment.
Everlasting, it lingers on the air.
The foul stench suffocates me
And I am caught in close-catching fears.
I hear a stifled scream in the distance.
A mangled convolution resounds,
A scratching web from the past,
A blight on a future as yet untold.
Distortion and confusion reign.
Fettered chains must be broken to give succour
To parched mouths and allow a drink from freedom’s deep well.
Scattered Definition
Are you come to take
me back to shelter
As yet undefined?
Do you lie still in wait?
I cannot sense you here.
Trusting face is come to withered
Trace and in the end your truth is betrayed.
Shattered is that treasured consolation.
Breath is stolen in faint-giving haze.
Smothering begins through vulnerable souls
And brings forth a great, potent yearning.
Succour is lost in ever-bending pressure,
Cleaving in two and deftly mangling just the same.
Now I leave you and take back myself,
The broken, beaten parts, made mere
Shards of my reality.
Bird Song
There you sit little bird,
Heart heavy ,brow low and
face pained
Withered wings are pinned down
and in disarray against
the harsh wind.
You, little bird, have no strength
to fly.
Alone and forsaken you are.
Yet you must not doubt.
You can fly again.
Stretch your wings,
Gradual movement
and gradual ease.
Look to hope. Be gay and proud.
Throaty and long will be your warble.
Clear ring and broad reach,
How happy is this little bird.
May weather, and floral scent are a
balm to your wound.
Strong flight and strong heart,
keenness is here once more.
Winter has no longer its harsh, icy grip.
Free-flowing are the air flights, which invite not clamour
And threat
Sweet and encouraging is the air.
Match and continue thy lyric.
Quiet
The slow-setting sun arrests the
Quickening of your desire
And implants in you a deep-set longing for peace.
As the sky darkens here
sets upon the air a calm breeze.
And sets around you its balmy cloak
To soak in your skin and awaken your mind.
Renew yourself in its arms and cast away your fears.
Lack of light
Bodies wrack with trembling torment
Slowly apathy is engendered by
mind-numbing motion
Grasping mumblings cloak in
false-giving comfort,
yet withdraws hope's light