28 poems - 20

Step On A Crack


See the daughter build a bed
Long enough for father's legs.
Mother hovers overhead
Keeping track of wasted eggs.

Here where hope and faith have died,
Hear the redlight of the mind:
Fear the face you have to hide
And the face you hide behind.

Mother digging for a weakness
Hopes to empty daughter's well;
Father hungry for uniqueness
Shuns the meat and eats the shell.

Here the broken never mends --
Here they love the feel of friction
And their touch is more a friend's,
Making each support addiction.

Mother says the lightning's grim;
Brother loves the smell of danger;
Daughter needs a loving him;
Father strokes a willing stranger.

See the ugliness inside
Overwhelm the outer beauty
When destroying mother's pride
Is a girl's delightful duty.

When the eyes behind the stare
Promise ice and offer fire --
When the past is everywhere,
Only scars can feel desire --

When the ancient urge to breed
And the ancient wound conspire
And the thing that makes you bleed
Soothes you with a dead desire --

Burn away the wasted seed,
Whisper softly the unspoken:
Learn to walk the ground you need,
And your back will be unbroken.


copyright 2009 Matthew J Wells