Watch the World Burn // Melting Wax (2 poems)
Two poems published by Collective Unrest
August 22, 2018
When the world around you
is burning,
how do you strike a match
to create your own flame?
How do you burn bright
amidst the coal-black
soot that has come to
cover us all like Vesuvius
raining down on those in Pompeii?
We now lie petrified,
afraid to move,
afraid to speak,
afraid.
Afraid of everything
we worked for and fought
against has come to rise again
and we fear for
the fate of our humanity.
Yet we refuse to fade
or let our flames extinguish-
they burn bright
amidst the hatred,
shedding light on all that still
must be changed.
As women rush to closets with
twisted wire necks of
coathangers like claws
clutched in hand;
as babies scream
for parents at the border,
ripped from solid security
of those who birthed them;
as men stand tall and women shrink;
colors begin to morph in meaning...
What will become of your flame?
When cages are meant for
people and locks
are kept without keys, who
do you answer to?
Who is the gatekeeper?
Where will you be
when the destruction of
basic human nature
is complete
and we fall back
in time to a dark place
we said "never again" but
it's far too similar for comfort
and the terror is
a national hum,
a vibration linking us,
palatable.
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When I gaze at my reflection
all hips and thighs
bulge around my middle
perfect pink pussy
grabbable and ready
scars and bruises
across skin
I am a clay doll
molded by fingers
of men.
I do not see
what I should-
all woman;
a little battered
by hands of time
upon her skin
but defined and
hourglass slim.
You are a woman,
I say to the one
staring back.
She smiles-
She knows it.
Eyes glisten and spark
lightning against sky
breasts firm and perky
twenty-five years
spent growing
into this woman
hips and thighs
promise sturdy,
sexy strength and power
hidden beneath curves,
an electrical current
flowing through veins
super-charged
Ready to ignite
The calm before the storm
is electricity flickering in her eyes.
I feel the charge racing off her skin,
live wires if I brush with fingertips
send me buzzing along with her.
Soaring through the night,
becoming one with the
lightning and thunder. ⚡️
I am everything
I have become
because of my mother,
my sisters spread far
across borders
Time stretched thin
like a candlewick
burning low
melting wax.
