The Worst

Gold cherry

By Jane Hyphen

Sat, 14 Dec 2019
  • 3573 reads
10 comments
 

 

The worst.

You left your entrails 

in a glass box.

Sealed forever

with a deadlock.

Thick blood 

trails every pane.

Our darkest hours

to temper and congeal 

on this display.

Every illustration

drawn inside our minds 

is smeared in black.

It cannot be.

 

The worst.

The trickle down

feels infinite.

To drip upon 

the brightest days 

For all futurity.

Trauma crystallised.

Silence, blind bends.

Your mid-winter face

half turned.

You blister

then you peel.

Exposure stings.

Then a shelter

calls your name.

You didn’t have to go.

We see your image 

and in sleep

we say your name. 

 

 

Certificate 12
Poem

Comments

Submitted by airyfairy on

This searing piece of poetry is our Facebook and Twitter Pick of the Day.  Please do share/retweet if you enjoy it too.

Picture:  Pixabay Creative Commons

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thanks for pick of the day! I starting writing this is response to someone in my circle taking his own life, he wasn't close to me but his social and professional circle was huge and he was such a helpful man. The sudden change in our perception of him has a horrific violence to it and for his family it's all been so public. It's the worst.

 

Submitted by celticman on

oh, well, as long as you don't talk about politics...

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Don't worry, I won't be. Politics no longer seems real, here and in the US, it's a phantom institution.

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

i am sorry I did not know what to say about your poem, like a deer when it smells blood I guess, such a wrongness in it. Now you have explained I understand why. Because no one wants to be able to understand this subject, but also you long to, like having a splinter out of your mind

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thanks Di_Hard. Knowbody knows what to say, you are so right about that but the mind longs to understand what's behind a door that's already shut and locked.

Good to hear from you too. I've been busy and struggle with mental clarity this time of year. I can barely string a sentence together. Hopefully will be more focused in the new year.

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

reading your comment, there's a real sense of it in the second verse. Suicide is brutal to those it leaves behind

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thanks for your comment Insert. 

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

I too couldn't see what this was about at first. The line that stands out to me is You didn't have to go,

and the sense of why there hadn't been more sharing and acceptance of help many can't now give, had no opportunity probably to give. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Hi Rhiannon. Thanks for your comment. I agree with you, some people cannot accept help or are so far gone that they don't know how to ask for it and yet those connected with them would have done anything to help.