Redemption

A look of strange purity,

the type of a true gentleman

anchoring a violent nature,

the type of innocence rediscovered out of evil

by the unexpectancy of falling in love

and of being loved

after so much grief, so much guilt, so much

time.

A nature - gentle and commanding,

full of every colour but grey,

potently sexual, but never crude,

burdened by a clear code of justice

that drives that nature to be

irrevocably lonely

without being reduced.

I will not be sorry

For me, the debt was paid

as I lost myself in a quickening despair

and I turned from my power as

lips turn from a kiss.

I turned from the owls’ graveyard

and sought the burgeoning morning.

I outlasted my own death and woke in water, waterlogged,

unprepared for a dung bug’s misery. I saw daybrids,

but I was not the one who evoked their song.

I saw tall buildings

rising and I could not reach their height.

I walked without rareness,

without command or spell.

I wore an ordinary greyness in the strands

of my once-red hair.

I dulled like a sea clogged with sludge. And this,

is how my debt was paid - in grueling undignified amounts.

I thought my clean slate was a brave release. I even planted

a tree and wondered through my raging pain

if it was mightier than simple madness.

In the end, I won what I sought,

even with these decalcified bones and poverty’s

prison cell, I found the light in that vision I formed

when I was in the indelible darkness,

thick with longing, guilt and sacrifice, but lacking

the umbilical cord

of praise.

From Us Two

We give our time like you give

wild laughter

and affection full, fearless of rejection.

Two of paint and music,

of flashlight play and dress-up magic,

you are the ones we hold in the torrential rains, the smile

that comes regardless of the backyard trees that crash to

the ground - all wires touching pavement.

Two of everglade emotions,

of all-out tears and jealous eyes,

we bless you as we would the best in our lives.

You have made us closer -

caring for, rejoicing in

the effort and rag-time joy

that is you two.

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© Copyright, 2015, Allison Grayhurst.
All Rights Reserved.