Tuesday, February 7, 2012

SLIDING INTO DUSK










She slides into dusk with trepidation
and hypnotized, shatters like a glove
filled with mornings gone lost
Then lies amongst the peach striations of sunset
Until plush black starlings on the wing scoop the shards,
bevel the edges, attempt to rectify damage

Lost in chaos with more than one reptile
slithering down the corridors in her head,
She knows it needs laying down
Her heavy, filled with rotted fruit head
Needs siphoning off, dousing;
its hissing reptiles hushed

Flames begin licking round the edges
of hysteria building with wobbly certainty
in the bedlam in her mind
How much time has elapsed, she  wonders
in the time it takes an eyelash to travel
down her cheek
Then float through the air 
like a dark angel's wing
broken off at the root
That is - no time at all ...

There is a crack in her sanity
And if she squints she can just
make out a drizzle
of "everything's fine"
But it looks like sap or resin;
Just as it's closing she has time 
and cogency enough to wonder
if it's freezing over ...
Or instead —
Forever in amber

S.E.Ingraham©
(Melting Monday's Week 5 Words:hysteria,elapse,lash,resin,bedlam,douse,plush,peach,hush,drizzle,reptile,hypnotize,rectify,bevel)

10 comments:

  1. ha dont we all have that crack...my sanity frozen in amber...maybe some days...smiles. reptiles slithering down my head...ack...get them off...lol...sorry a little poetry delirious now...nice write...

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  2. There's an intensity of emotion in here that you explore, that finds its most powerful voice when distilled into its essence, like that one, final metaphor - that resin closing in - in that amazing last stanza.

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  3. This is excellent! I especially enjoyed the second stanza. "Lost in chaos with more than one reptile..." So many metaphors in this poem!

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  4. Sharon- This is fantastic! I love the eyelash image. Somehow I missed Monday's melting this week.

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  5. Love these:
    "lies amongst the peach striations"
    "its hissing reptiles hushed"
    "There is a crack in her sanity" ... Ha!
    "Forever in amber" ... Beautiful.

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  6. Thanks to all of - you for coming, reading and commenting ... truly appreciated

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  7. This is truly exquisite, revealing a daunting mastery of the craft-- I was immediately taken by

    ...Then lies amongst the peach striations of sunset
    Until plush black starlings on the wing scoop the shards,
    bevel the edges, attempt to rectify damage...

    This goes far beyond the exercise and the weft of the words in the challenge-- love the template here as well! xxxj

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  8. This is powerful...I think everyone who writes as some form of madness...my pen becomes my confessor, my therapist, my diary..There is a crack in her sanity And if she squints she can just make out a drizzle of "everything's fine" I can relate to this. Great piece!! Thanks for stopping by my blog

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  9. Thanks so much jen and Susie ... you've shown real insight into this piece and I greatly appreciate that and especially that you went to such lengths to comment also ...

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  10. Enjoyed this one as well I can understand the bedlam of her mind..as I often find myself sifting through the fine grains of mind.

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