Rescue

End of the day, relenting,

easing off the mighty restlessness

that overtook the morning

and most of the afternoon.

I know the deeds of my happiness

and the hot flesh branding of my imprisonment.

I know as I held council with the speakers

in my mind – all of them directing me

to wide open freedom and teamwork

to stave off the forces of death

and unrighteous burial.

They tell me it is time to close fast the wounds

that siphon out our power, be brave

as if we were in a deserted city on a mountain

surrounded by a rising sea and shouting winds

clanking their lock-fast swallowing chains.

Hold out they tell me, on the highest tower,

at the highest point, and never

let our trust become captive to fear.

They tell me, even though we look right,

we look left, seeing nothing but sky and clouds,

even though our ankles and knees are already immersed,

as the smells of fishy salt fill our nostrils,

holding our hands above the pressing doom,

engage with God, they tell me.

All at once, the voices tell me,

stand equal, and in that equality,

the light will come.

Let us be one and we will know mercy,

stronger than gravity, than all of our bones combined.

The light will come and it will love us,

conquering, alleviating the final struggle.

Copyright © 2021 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 .https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst/docs/book_32_-ways_of_mercy_-_the_poetry_of_allison_gra

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First published in “Atunis Galaxy Poetry and anthology” March 2021, August 2021

https://atunispoetry.com/2021/03/19/allison-grayhurst-canada/

https://atunispoetry.com/2021/03/

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/and-international-poets-and-hannie-rouweler/atunis-galaxy-anthology-2022/paperback/product-n5g48k.html?fbclid=IwAR1mKGISmlWXwnPXUy20mNRM4DKCF-zRuLxqRKVrUKuvtnRlDbDIDYsQ_i4&page=1&pageSize=4

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Published in “Synchronized Chaos” April 2021

http://synchchaos.com/synchronized-chaos-april-2021-escape-room/

http://synchchaos.com/poetry-from-allison-grayhurst-12/

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You can listen to this poem by clicking the link below:

Half Circle

            Too late, in the earth,

dug out and consumed.

A cramp in the thigh you named

your own, the affronted sensibility

of your self-importance.

            That cramp took out your uterus,

took your home on the hill

and put you in a basement,

took me out too

of any further equation.

            Too far, the fracture thickened into

a chasm, your mind found release

in bold yellows and reds

because it could no longer bear

the subtleties of existence.

            You turned a monster into an effigy

of hope, sold justice for titillating fascism.

I am trying to forgive you, accept your death,

the hardened block cell walls of your mind,

once so fecund with inquisitiveness,

abstraction and high atmosphere.

            Sometimes mercy comes as a shock,

a rippling destructive wave, speeding, breaking

the floorboards, the ceiling, so there is no recourse

but to run into the wide open, pajamas on, grief

on naked display.

            Grief over our desecrated love,

over never knowing another morning

without raw anxiety, with allegiance only

to the immediacy of obvious uncertainty,

loss, the possibility of more loss.

God is on my doorstep

like a swarm of sparrows saying

I love you    I love you

          I am here

I have been broken by this unhappy year,

still breaking, it seems.

I cannot piece myself together.

God arrives as a blue jay at my back window,

speaks, and I know the past is a finished dance,

necessary, sealed.

Copyright © 2021 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 .https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst/docs/book_32_-ways_of_mercy_-_the_poetry_of_allison_gra

.

First published in “Atunis Galaxy Poetry website and anthology” March 2021, August 2021

https://atunispoetry.com/2021/03/19/allison-grayhurst-canada/

https://atunispoetry.com/2021/03/

https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/and-international-poets-and-hannie-rouweler/atunis-galaxy-anthology-2022/paperback/product-n5g48k.html?fbclid=IwAR1mKGISmlWXwnPXUy20mNRM4DKCF-zRuLxqRKVrUKuvtnRlDbDIDYsQ_i4&page=1&pageSize=4

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Published in “Raven Cage Zine” March 2021

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OHHDKazRmtKcCPpR4sco_SrxoK19029c/view

RavenCageZine55

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You can listen to this poem by clicking the link below:

High Alert

I see a fruit fly

on the mirror –

summer is a shallow blanket

lifting into autumn.

The moon has lips

like a shimmering worm,

wet from the rain.

The accelerant-fire came from a lightning blast,

after death, in-between

catching a breath.

The waters rose like a mountain

from a calming surface and engulfed my home whole,

sinking it into the lightless pressure below –

heavy, unbearable, rippling through each cell, each

cell exploding, axed of oxygen,

gasping for mercy in a merciless day.

I climb the stairs – the ghosts of that day

embedded everywhere, in the nails of the old wood floor,

in the claw foot bathtub, and in the dust on the shelves.

My mind rewinds, relives every fragment of horror,

saturating my pores, bloating my heart

with unimaginable panic, again.

But this morning there is peace in the hallway.

There is a sleeping, happy child who has grown

into a loving, dynamic man.

The rug was pulled,

but the furniture is now set right.

Breathe because breath

is all I have,

and this day without the quicksand-seizure,

this day to appreciate a peaceful morning,

to honour my son’s astounding life-force, and his smile

embracing the road ahead, his fighter’s dance,

quick-footed, energetic – a sturdy happiness,

perpetual, more permanent and potent

than the earthquake-eruption destruction

rolling (still visible)

in the wake behind.

Copyright © 2021 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

 .https://issuu.com/allisongrayhurst/docs/book_32_-ways_of_mercy_-_the_poetry_of_allison_gra

.

First published in “Squawk Back Magazine” March 2021

http://www.thesquawkback.com/2021_03_03_archive.html

http://www.thesquawkback.com/2021/03/allison.html#more

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You can listen to this poem by clicking the link below: