Pain
It licks at the edges of my heart like
Tongues of fire threatening to consume
Traveling fast and wide
Left only scorches in its wake
What’s damaged must first be removed
The aftereffects hurt most of all
As the new is put in place
Pain on pain from digging deep
From cutting out what’s bad
Exposed to elements unused to now
That should be a normal part of life
Even more comes from grafting on
The new material of life.
It wants to speak and rises from
Deep within my heart
The feelings are so very odd
I liken it to a feeling as if
I were being turned inside out
It nears my chest and fills me up I cannot get it out
It suffocates and seems it will
Swallow me up whole
The screams still live deep inside
The horror shakes my soul
My heart is charred and scarred a bit
Though not beyond repair
What seems so hard is having watched it
Happen in real time
No screams heard then and still none now
The horror’s trapped inside somewhere
And plays out endlessly
I watched it happen and spoke no words
A moral tragedy
Pain on pain it piles up
How do you start the work
The pain it screams in little ways
It wants for me to know it’s
Alive and well, living still
Deep inside my soul
3-7-2001
(jml)
Return to - Poetry Page
Return to - Jeannine's Home Page