The ravening stillness, <br /> <br />my heart bleeds out across this empty morning: <br />Drifting down country roads <br />city streets for news of peace, <br />for a soulful rhapsody of rarefy language. <br /> <br />Today I find myself <br />on neither side of war and peace, <br />beatitudes or voodoo, love nor hate- <br />Just swaying somewhere in the middle of truth. <br /> <br />Flowing through the ease <br />of burning leaves on another fall afternoon, <br />reflecting a world with out hope in their ashes: <br />Any one of us could be the smoke and rise above the flames. <br /> <br />I'm a lover, though <br />I'm broken into pieces, too small <br />to scatter to the wind- <br /> <br />So much of the time, I am ready <br />to be hunted by the darkness: <br />I dream of a perfect world. <br /> <br />It must be found outside of this struggling circle- <br />This womb is tearing, <br /> <br />the rheum of God's invisible eye <br />is beginning to envision, again. <br /> <br />What is lost, entangled chaos and solitude, <br />I used to seek refuge in relation, <br />mistake understanding for silence- <br />and now I go, these days <br />roundabout God's snow-globe aware, I am alone <br />and how it is most likely I will forget <br />to stop by the mailbox, <br />to receive a postcard from your vacation oasis- <br />To give me word of this, to give me word of you. <br /> <br />I will walk these miles still <br />reciting what's left of the poetry <br />that courses through my brittle cords- <br /> <br />Perhaps I spoke too clearly, too honestly, <br />for you've decided <br />the heart is something you've denied <br />for longer than I am willing or able to strive- <br />and I am unsure now, <br />unsteady of your drumbeat and the battle it is waging.<br /><br />Amberlee Carter<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ailment/
