I Stand Up

 

 

       I stand up, everything

falls down, the load and the balance

on a soft bed of nothingness to catch

and embrace in a cruel dream

of freedom.

            I draw my breath in the rising wave,

knowing the calm waters are too lonely

for sustenance.

This has butchered my means of survival,

drowning my body in acid-mud.

       This has rounded out the edges, so

like a hard ball, I am tumbling down

an incline that stretches out

to a cliff with fast momentum,

no chance of halting or even slowing down.

       I found a piece of joy in day-to-day service

and must pay with blood flow, extreme heat and drought,

pay and never have a day without survival’s worrisome

stranglehold gnawing out my intestines, making holes

here, serious as death, serious

as an asteroid breaking the atmosphere,

thinning my faith and all I hold sacred,

tying it down on a large rock, trying me up

on a large rock, in slow decomposition,

waiting the buzzard’s peck and sting.

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Copyright © 2023 by Allison Grayhurst

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“The poems included in Allison Grayhurst’s poetry collection Running, lightwave riding reveal an impressive artistic perfection and creative energy. The poems are full of lyrical force and show freshness of style. No doubt, this is a significant work. The poems have great power of observation and originality of imagination,” Dr. Karunesh Kumar Agarwal publisher Cyberwit.net

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First published in “Kavya Kishor” March 2023

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

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