.

Illness

.

By the time the snow stays

and my lips are dry as a left-out orange peel

you will be better, your legs will be running

and waiting to ride down snowhills

and feast on hot chocolate and candy canes.

By this time next week I will look at you,

and feel safe again, knowing the angels have healed you

and this month-long desert

with its snakepit and ruthless thirst

is far behind us. The mansion up ahead will now be

our home, where love and ease reign and mercy sleeps

under our pillow. You will be a happy boy,

again bouncing joyously into my arms. And I will hold you

without hurting, knowing

God and goodness

are real.

.

 .

Copyright © 2010 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

.

First published in “Imaginary Conversations Lit” November 2015

http://imaginaryconversationslit.blogspot.ca/2015/11/illness-poem-by-allison-grayhurst.html

.

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

.

.

“Allison Grayhurst intertwines a potent spirituality throughout her work so that each poem is not simply a statement or observation, but a revelation that demands the reader’s personal involvement. Grayhurst’s poetic genius is profound and evident. Her voice is uniquely authentic, undeniable in its dignified vulnerability as it is in its significance,” Kyp Harness, singer/songwriter, author.

“Allison Grayhurst’s poems are like cathedrals witnessing and articulating in unflinching graphic detail the gritty angst and grief of life, while taking it to rare clarity, calm and comfort. Grayhurst’s work is haunting, majestic and cleansing, often leaving one breathless in the wake of its intelligence, hope, faith and love amidst the muck of life. Many of Allison Grayhurst’s poems are simply masterpieces. Grayhurst’s poetry is a lighthouse of intelligent honour… indeed, intelligence rips through her work like white water,” Taylor Jane Green, Registered Spiritual Psychotherapist and author.

.

.