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After this

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there is no other.

There will be the curtain charred

by deliberate fire.

There will be the food stomped

between floorboards and the

smile of faint sardonic recognition

at all the repulsive and petty senselessness

that lurks beside every phone call.

But there won’t be the hanging around,

or the deep dive into a suicidal quagmire.

After this, the energy stops

going where the devil leads,

going under the beams of sun

pulling flowers from the garden

at rapid speed and cursing the air around me.

After this, I can outlive any black star.

 

 

Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “The Peregrine Muse” December 2016

  

https://sites.google.com/site/theperegrinemuseii/home/grayhurst

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

https://allisongrayhurst.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/after-this.m4a?_=1

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“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.

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