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
amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst
“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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Published in “Ephemeral Elegies” June 2023
https://ephemeralelegies.com/2023/06/26/i-stand-up-by-allison-grayhurst/
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Published in “Fevers of the Mind” June 2023
https://feversofthemind.com/2023/06/05/a-poetry-showcase-allison-grayhurst-june-2023/
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First published in “Kavya Kishor” March 2023
https://en.kavyakishor.com/2023/03/07/poet-allison-grayhursts-poems/
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Published in “Our Poetry Archive 100 Anniversary Issue”, July 2023
https://ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.com/2023/07/allison-grayhurst.html
https://ourpoetryarchive.blogspot.com/2023/07/our-poetry-archive-july-2023-issue-no.html
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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:
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