Exile
(I wrote this for Three Word Wednesday — this week’s words are bait, jump, and victim.)
outside her cell, the wild woods beckon
but bashing her brains against cement,
the girl can’t think how to climb up
to the high window through which
sunshine sometimes spills
when she cries out in loneliness
something pushes up through a rough-hewn hole
in her basement floor, like bait for her to grab
it’s not food, and it’s not drink
but an arrow with serrated edges
she uses it to pierce her heart, but
somehow she never dies, then a voice responds
to her cries, and she jumps, lobbing the arrow, to
pierce the heart of whomever gets too close
too close, too close to her blood
an arrow named fear
an arrow named jealousy
an arrow named not good enough
an arrow named outrageous misfortune
it doesn’t matter, they all wound, if not kill
she hears moans from outside
but she moans louder that she’s the victim
of him, of her, of her family and the entire world,
red-faced and squalling in the cell she constructed,
beating her fists against block until they bleed
hollow years pass, and the woman watches
the tops of trees swaying, in emerald contrast to
her world of gray, and sometimes, at night, she sees
a shining moon and hears water bubbling outside:
the only sound that soothes
unlike her, water is strong — it permeates
she needn’t climb the walls; instead, she can
become water, seep through the floor of her cell
to the basement, then down to the groundwater
to flow anywhere she will
in her dreams, she washes clean the hole
through which all the arrows have come and
smooths out its jagged edges, and as groundwater,
she flows out everywhere to heal the wounds she caused
she soothes pain when she can and showers love where she may
could she be the water?
can she flow away from her
self-imposed exile of fear and folly?
dare to dream, she whispers: first the woods,
then the oceans, and no more broken hearts
Tags: poetry, Three Word Wednesday
Filed under: poetry
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this is beautiful though sad.
1 Dee said this (July 22, 2010 at 6:21 am)
It’s all inside.. where else? Yes, she can come out.. because there is no body else but she.. isn’t it? Very well written, this post! Peerhaps my first visit.. hopt to have you visiting too.
2 Ramesh Sood said this (July 22, 2010 at 6:39 am)
I really admire the lines in this, so fresh and alive. there’s a sadness, but there’s such a beauty in these words.
3 ThomG said this (July 22, 2010 at 8:03 am)
beautiful….
4 Nadine said this (July 22, 2010 at 9:55 am)
This is lovely and so evocative of how our prisons are largely of our own making.
5 bunnygirl said this (July 22, 2010 at 2:35 pm)
@Dee — thank you.
@Ramesh — yup, you’re spot on. Thanks!
@Thom — I appreciate your kind comment.
@Nadine — thanks.
@Ann — thank you, and yesyesyes.
6 ThommaLyn said this (July 22, 2010 at 10:21 pm)
The cell of our own making. Lovely phrases, beautifully written, and I’m glad I’m on the outside, most of the time. The imagery of the water bubbling outside the cell window, unseen but felt, got to me. Water purifies.
Hugsabunches, KS
7 Dorothy said this (July 23, 2010 at 3:12 am)
very refreshing lines!
No More A Victim
8 Divaa D said this (July 23, 2010 at 7:14 am)
Thought provoking, and quite true….a quiet lyricism.
9 mark said this (July 23, 2010 at 8:07 am)
This is sad, but quite powerful writing! Love the stanza about the arrow, shame that her wounds seem self-inflicted.
10 Jay Thurston said this (July 23, 2010 at 9:04 am)
@Dorothy — thank you so much, sweet (((((((KS.)))))) I’m outside most of the time, too, these days.
@Diva — thanks.
@Mark — thank you, much appreciated!
@Jay — thanks for your kind comment. Yes, not only has she pierced herself with those arrows, but (subconsciously) she formed and sharpened them in her basement.
11 ThommaLyn said this (July 23, 2010 at 1:53 pm)
Our world has many like the woman you have written about. I just wish they’d wake up and see that power is theirs if they chose to take it, one step at a time.
12 Mysoul said this (July 23, 2010 at 3:44 pm)
Mysoul — thank you for your wonderful comment. Very insightful — such women (and such men, too) must learn to own their own strength and use it wisely.
13 ThommaLyn said this (July 23, 2010 at 3:53 pm)
Beautiful
14 Jeeves said this (July 24, 2010 at 8:28 am)
Thank you, Jeeves.
15 ThommaLyn said this (July 24, 2010 at 12:40 pm)
The whole imagery of wall around a person could have seemed cliched in a less surer hand. And I liked the hope infused at the end
16 Vivek said this (July 25, 2010 at 3:47 pm)
Thank you so much, Vivek. And yes, hope is crucial.
17 ThommaLyn said this (July 25, 2010 at 4:48 pm)