This poem was published in Borderless Journal in January, 2024.
The stockpile of melodies and memories
of the love-drenched days I lost,
masquerades the choking, cherry-red landscape
of my torrid heart.
Intertwined by a breadcrumb trail
of desire and penitence, it gleams,
varnished with a tawdry coat of worldly indulgence!
My fragile allegory of yesterday
melds with the brittle rhetoric of today
and gossamer tomorrows.
Together, they scoff at my callow youth,
and at the whorls of smoke
rising from the ashes of my clipped wings
and broken dreams.
A shot of black coffee, spilled on the edges,
helps me splice and braid
the frayed fibres of my soul’s fractured tapestry.
PC: Kelly Sikkema
