The Broken Lady

Cherry

By Jane Hyphen

Fri, 12 Jul 2024
  • 320 reads
6 comments
 

 

She doesn’t move

The broken lady

At least when the mortals are passing

She may contemplate much

From the bounds of her post

She’s more than the stepping stones

But less than the carp in the fountain pools

Placed among the greenery 

‘She beautiful,’ they say

About her nothing ways

Perhaps themselves to write her story

But for transient fluttering leaves

She stands alone

Is she a shrine?

To modesty perhaps

To speak up, she cannot

Or cast her eyes, cast down

Ashamed she holds her clothes

Against her sober form

 

‘She’s not moving, it’s the branches’

‘She’s not calling, it’s the wind’

 

Her trees are so protective

Silent witness to her fall

They hid her stony arm 

Beneath a bed of leaves

And she was resurrected

Only to be buried deeper still

Her features once refined

Are softened by the rain

Her face is an illusion

To make you look again 

And times goes on - unsettled

On the watch of the broken lady

In her powerlessness, a knowing

In her abstinence, a scream

She won’t fall again

Her roots go down to ethereal seams

 

Certificate U
Poem

Comments

Submitted by marandina on

I really like this poem. I have read it a few times to get between the layers. My literal interpretation is of a statue that's neglected but I imagine there are metaphors at work here.

 

Either way, it's beautifully done.

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thank you so much, Paul. A statue was my inspiration but you're right, it was the perfect object for metaphors from the living world to flow in. 

 

Submitted by celticman on

much  to ponder and wonder. 

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

The more wondering, less clarity, celticman. Thank you for your thoughts here x

 

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

It made me ponder on the people who we know so little about that we see and pass, and may wonder about, but only see the outer features, and maybe a little of the wear and tear of life on their faces. Rhiannon

 

Submitted by Jane Hyphen on

Thank you for reading, Rhiannon. That's true, always so easy to make assumptions about people, the reality of individual lives and the characters which live them so much more complex than appearance.