Far and Here

 .

Far from the small-talk daze

and this season I long to unload,

my hands are open

but numb from the cold.

My body turns the colour of moonlight

glowing, hollow, a thing only of reflection.

My last chance came and went.

Everywhere power escapes me

and the place I live is wrought with extremes,

incapable of toning down.

In the sandpit of my mind

the pit-patter of small feet

goes undetected – I hear only

the wail of those who fell by the gestures

of the corrupt and greedy.

I hear faint and desperate echoing

like spider-feet moving across a tongue.

I hear and I am listening to nothing else.

I am far from a solid core,

far from the plane ride to paradise,

far from the sodium dream,

but I am here

and here

I am looking around.

.

.

.

Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

First published in “Kritya”

http://www.kritya.in/0808/En/poetry_at_our_time.html

.

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

.

The bough breaks

 .

and dreams collapse uncushioned

like the smile that forsakes me

and the wonderful illusion of things past

but never lost.

For here I cut my antennae down

and kiss the pyramid on my grass,

blessed by the end result

but never by the happening:

I know the world

and it needs forgiveness.

For here the smell grew toxic

and the glass filled to overflowing,

but the grime inside never got better,

though polished every day.

For here I cradle my body to sleep,

the long way down is the only way down

and we are sold by the scars upon our throat,

by the longing discarded that never knew it

could end

and by the only relationship we are all

bound to have – our stronghold with or

not with

          God.

.

.

Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

First published in “Crack the Spine” issue 64, and “Crack The Spine Summer 2013 anthology” under the title “For Here”

http://www.crackthespine.com/2013/09/summer-2013-anthology.html

http://www.crackthespine.com/2013/05/issue-sixty-four-contributors.html#more

http://issuu.com/crackthespine/docs/issue_64

.

You can listen to the poem by clicking below:

.

.

A Newly-Patterned Fingerprint

.

It’s the end

of my kind,

the last of my line

unfolding. And then

all of it will be different –

both the edge and the enlightenment

both the things precise

and the things undefined.

All of it that was smouldering

will be set ablaze,

and beauty and grace will be overflowing

like a drip-drop dream pure as reality.

It is the end – the place of no more new beginnings,

a place where the perfect light cannot fade

or grow too bright, and where ironic timing transforms

into an integrated, balanced life.

.

.

Copyright © 2006 by Allison Grayhurst

amazon.com/author/allisongrayhurst

.

.

First published in “Boston Poetry Magazine”, 2013

http://bostonpoetry.wordpress.com/tag/allison-grayhurst/