Categories
2018 - Winter

Poems by Marie McMullin

Golden October Autumn Idyll
‘Golden October Autumn Idyll’ © ASSY. SourceCC License

OLD FRIEND

Old friend, I think of you still sometimes.

A ceaseless hiss in the back of my mind

Tempts me into dwelling on things long past.

 

Come, just this once

Take my hand

And follow me down

Memory lane,

My very own fairy tale.

 

Here is where we met

On opposite sides of a river

With no bridge in sight.

 

Each day we came

And sat under the rustling trees

Feet playing in the waves.

 

Sunlight skittered upon the water

Twining with our laughter

And starting a fire.

 

Here is the meander

Where one day I jumped

When the distance became too much.

 

Eyes closed, I see

Your hand holding mine

Pulling me out.

 

Eyes open, I gasp on the dank bank

Where the current spat me

At your behest:

Me here, you there.

 

A buzzing in my ears says you are near

Standing on the other side of the river.

Old friend, I think of you still sometimes.

 

 

Althingi Broken Glass
‘Althingi Broken Glass’ © Unknown. SourceCC License

SILENT WITNESSES

The door slams and resonates

with the last notes of a dance

more violent than a waltz.

A boiled-over pot on the stove

and acrid sinuous smoke

stinging the eyes and throat.

Chopped vegetables scattered

like cadavers on the counter

copy bloody battlefields.

The toy castle, built brick by brick,

Is no longer a home but a house of cards

Flattened by words, those vicious, vindictive winds.

A teddy bear, cast away by an angry hand,

lies face down on the ground,

head tucked into the corner to drown out the shouts.

To its left, a smashed up plate,

Its pieces remnants of one

painful, piercing shriek.

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