SOLSTICE
© Azure 2002
The machete slashed without warning
Never felt the initial entry
Only knew its depth by the amount of blood
Gushing, spurting onto clean soft skin
He aimed for the heart, and missed
Struck what was left instead
The pain was inconsequential
Compared to the agony of intent
He claimed to love this thing he destroyed
In his way perhaps he did
And yet the weapon came down again
Sucking the life force from within
He watched the body writhe in defense
If only to escape his wrath
He was more than a few miles distant
But the cuts hit home every time
He carved my self in his image
As if to preserve his stolen power
He took all I had and gave nothing
Demanding more of the impossible
Why, on this eve of peace and wonder
Surrounded by a dark pit of despair
Do I think of generations past
Embracing surreality as my solace
With reality just a dangerous concept
The woman watches from another plane
She is now as she was then
Helpless against his solid perfection
She weeps from frustration
I wash the blood with her tears
Is this what it has come to
Oh controlling force of the present
The denial of your own flesh for that of another
The rare and wasted contact of obligation only
What have I done if not to honor you
To place you where you belong, in my life
And yet you vanish without a trace
Into the womb of a visiting stranger
Never to see what was here from the beginning
I wait, unfaltering, in the shadows
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