Scarlet's Poetry Den "Litany of Scars - Notes to a Missing Lover"

It is the War (Listen to the poem in RealAudio G2)

I had a mother and father once
even now have the rocking chair
in which they loved me all to death

the dents on my skull
are from the playpen
in which they tried to trap
my hungry mind
cage imagination

I will never go back
I don't like coffins
especially not ones
that look like houses

here are the fingerprints
of the man who first knew me
did you see and want me
as I slid out his door at dawn?
were you the first to see me really cry?

somewhere
I crashed into a wall
now flesh streams crimson
from the mirrors I shattered
gut wrenched when I first saw
the lie of my life
the twisted mythologies
snaked into my psyche
constant warped pressure

as the mirrors broke
I choked and gagged
on the smoke of burnt offerings

I would have screamed louder
but there was no-one to hear

it is the insanity of our lives
the constant war
endless reek of death

I wish to  learn to hate
to know the finality of bitterness

my eyes begin to water
Vision goes kaleidoscope

veins ripped open
who'd've thought I had so much blood

I pray for the tide to turn
before I drown

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Last updated on September 6, 1999
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