Milk and Honey

The time has come

to say goodbye

to sticky death, the thick

latching-onto shadows

following you

from the laundry room

to the dinner plate.

It is time to shape your future

on the other side of this impossible wall,

unite with a merciful tide,

join a breachable adventure.

Pollution rises in this captivity,

stiffens the air and brings transgressions.

If you want to leave, ask to leave

and you will be on the other side

of this raging torment.

The time has come,

your intentions are exact.

Release any malice,

release all unnecessary bonds.

Walk forward, the way is cleared.

It is time to receive.

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Copyright © 2022 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

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First published in “Academy of the Heart and Mind” July 2022

https://academyoftheheartandmind.wordpress.com/2022/07/17/choice-and-other-poems/

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You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

Choice

I swayed and found fire

on my backside, in my insides,

quaking, cracking the edges and the surfaces,

melting the dream that sustained me.

Down the slide, there can be no laws but the law

of commitment to love, to making up for winter

by honouring the snow and days of hibernation.

Though I have been broken

like a broken dolphin’s fin,

I find hope, in the piled-up books

I plan to read, on the peninsula I leap onto,

leap while I am sinking, leap

from one ledge to another, leap

for summer is ending and I refuse to go with it.

I refuse to sway, joyless, no music.

.

Copyright © 2022 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

Published in “Poets’ Espresso Review, Volume 14 Issue 4” November 2022

PE Vol. 14 Issue 4 Summer, Fall 2022 October 2022

https://www.poetsespressoreview.com/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o2E_8r2fEzwYb5F62xIXI8fgvRcEjVhe/view

.

.

First published in “Academy of the Heart and Mind” July 2022

https://academyoftheheartandmind.wordpress.com/2022/07/17/choice-and-other-poems/

.

.

.

You can listen to the poem by clicking below: