Days 3 & 4

I read somewhere that it takes 66 days to form a new habit. In the interest of getting into the habit of blogging regularly, I plan to publish one post a day for the next 66 days, finishing up on October 13, 2020. Content-wise, each day's post can include anything that crosses my mind and that I hope will spark something in yours, whether poetry, prose, art, or the occasional rant. Here's to 66 days of finding something to say :)

Just two days in, I've managed to skip a day. How very on-brand for me. (In my defense, I was moving to a different state, I didn't know the Wi-Fi password of where I was staying, yada yada yada. On with the content.)

Here, then, are what would have been the entries for Day 3 and Day 4. Consider it a double-feature (and not a belated addition):

Like Glass Breaking

I spoke without thinking
Accusation ringing out
Harsh, hanging in the air
Making distance between us
There is a silence after harsh words
The opposite of the silence after storm
Like an unresolved chord resounding
Long after the song is ended
And the pianist wishes he could sink
Through the floor into the abyss
Away from the flinching audience

If I could see my words they would look
Like glass breaking
Shattering across a brittle tile floor
Bright shards, bright shards
Brought about by a trembling hand

They say we can eat our words
But we can only ever taste them
On their way out into the air
Never can we swallow them down again
I would eat them, I would chew
The broken glass
I would swallow down the bright shards
To stop them from piercing you

Ah, your glass-window eyes
I have shattered the window-panes with a word
Ah, your butterfly-soul
I have crushed your iridescent wings
Ah, your heart of gold
Worthy of words like apples of gold in hangings of silver 

I broke a part of you today
I cannot take back the jangling discord, the ugly sound
Like glass breaking
So I gather the broken pieces in my hands
And lay them before you
A glittering heap of destruction
In all its transparent shame
See through the shards to me, I beg of you

Forgive me
Forgive me

 

 

Night-Kingdom

There was a time I held the strings

And moved the puppets from the wings

There was a time I set the tinfoil crowns

On painted puppet kings

 

Once upon a time I ruled the world.

 

I built my kingdom late at night

Hammer and chisel, saw and knife

Working all night long

By the light of the moon and the stars

Working till the morning light

 

There was a time my kingdom stood

Made of cardboard, paper, wood

Every turret a cereal box

And every flag a white handkerchief

Ironwork of paperclips and staples

Underneath the dining table

A blanket pulled low over the side

Whenever I wanted to hide

 

And I wondered what I’d built before all night

With the moonlight through the window

Turning kingdoms dark and bright

 

Once upon a time my kingdom stood.

 

 

 

Till tomorrow,

Clara