Along The Breaking Point

This tether will not lead me to anything,

least of all you.

But still I keep it clasped

between rope burnt palms

unsure of the slack

where once there was a taut pull,

desperate and pleading,

but slowly fraying

in the places I chose not to look.

StockSnap_WCJG7OH2FV

 


With the Daily Prompt no longer running I’m looking for some new places to hunt for inspiration. Does anyone have any recommendations for poetry prompts/link ups that take place during the week?

 

He Sailed In On The Wrong Tide

You arrived too early,

at the point when my heart

could only shudder not flutter.

So unused to feeling anything

besides the grinding of pieces

forcing themselves to fit

into places grown too small.

 

Instead of heat pooling somewhere deep

there was fire along my hairline

inside the back of my skull,

with some primordial lesson still drumming

in the shadows of my DNA.

 

 

A tempo of hammering,

lungs creasing and collapsing

feet turned to lead still beating

with the panic of my pulse

as I let the miles run out of count

beneath me.

 

Catching my breath was a year long exericse

which when marked

only came up with a half score

of ‘could do better if she applied herself’

and ‘doesn’t seem to really understand

the subject matter discussed.’


Daily Post: Premature

Toxic

Despite the warning signs

I pressed myself against your skin,

let the acid burn away my fingerprints

until only teeth were left

to identify the body by.

 

You were poison and venom,

though it’s unclear how

the first dose was administered.

If you closed your mouth

around my throat

or if I sank my fangs into you.

 

What doesn’t kill you

can make you stronger.

Or shift the basis of your DNA

until the mutations

become the building block

of something new and half done.

 

When I recognized us

for the first time

I didn’t know my own face.

Something that toxic

could never be real.


Daily Prompt: Toxic