Becalmed

Kenny O'Donnell

We are becalmed, 
Taking on water.
Bloodfoam-
poison-
Curdles
In my throat,
Dammed
Behind gritted teeth.
Even deep breaths
Stoke,
The smoulder.
My lungs filled
With ash,
With smoke.
Breaths of acrid air.
I am more scar
Than skin.
Once oak-barked
Now brittle.

My heart
Is bound
Tethered, suffering
The ropes' burn
While your mind
Is encased
In thorned vines
Growing thicker, sharper,
Tighter with each imagined
Fear you collect.

I cannot
Let you drown
In the deep.
I cannot
Keep us
Afloat alone
And our raft,
splintered
And seeping
Water, is becalmed.

We
Could repair the sails
Together.
I will fashion oars
With my bones
So long
As we
Paddle together.
We can venture
To the horizon,
From the maw
Of the abyss,
The fabled edge.
A sanctuary revealed.
But
I can't sail
There for you.

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Comments +

Comments2

  • sorenbarrett

    Very well imaged and worded. This poem is a fave

  • Poetic Licence

    A sense of a broken relationship that can be fixed, but they cannot do along, it has to be together, very nicely written



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