Claim

TheFeatheredSleep

Don’t open your chest up

let the butterflies out

burn the velvet gloves and seek to trust

hands held over hands in circles

dancing to the gravy of secure claim

Don’t risk dissolution

by the marble hands of your own family

it never gets easier

a little death upon a little death

pursed words kissing with violence

and just as you know all these things

you hang yourself by the neck

that’s the fool who is a child

keeps returning to empty chairs

all fall down

such is the rope burn

when love turns cruel

when love lets you down

family existing to crush the lotus

how then does the bloom float

something wide and spectacular

with waterlogged roots seeking ground

how then does the moon touch water?

reflecting shapes of wonder against glass

the hurt is

fierce and terrible

the tiger is

open mouthed

the knife digs

deep into sound

stars blitz like warm shower

lights echo in soft purr

you can cut me down with one word

you hold the key, you are my blood

and I love you when you hurt me

more than I should allow

how do we learn

to avoid exposure when

our wrists are bound

by family ties and emptiness

perhaps the pain is reminder

life is a knife, it can butter, it can cut

if we try we can surf

the upside more than down

like migrating streams releasing winter’s cold

 

 

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41 thoughts on “Claim”

  6. The searing of it all–the pain, it doesn’t completely go away, but it does wane… in time.I found the following lines to be chock full of matchless imagery and I would consider this the meat of the poem–the most important part, at least, to me while reading it, it seemed this way:

    ”
    NOVEMBER 27, 2017
    THEFEATHEREDSLEEP
    5 COMMENTS

    Don’t open your chest up

    let the butterflies out

    burn the velvet gloves and seek to trust

    hands held over hands in circles

    dancing to the gravy of secure claim

    Don’t risk dissolution

    by the marble hands of your own family

    it never gets easier

    a little death upon a little death

    pursed words kissing with violence

    and just as you know all these things

    you hang yourself by the neck

    that’s the fool who is a child

    keeps returning to empty chairs

    all fall down

    such is the rope burn

    when love turns cruel

    when love lets you down

    family existing to crush the lotus

    how then does the bloom float

    something wide and spectacular

    with waterlogged roots seeking ground

    how then does the moon touch water?”

    Each day, a test. We are students forever. Peace, Candice.

  7. Ugh… silly copy & paste selected all. Ha! Here’s the bit:

    “and just as you know all these things

    you hang yourself by the neck

    that’s the fool who is a child

    keeps returning to empty chairs

    all fall down

    such is the rope burn

    when love turns cruel

    when love lets you down

    family existing to crush the lotus

    how then does the bloom float

    something wide and spectacular

    with waterlogged roots seeking ground

    how then does the moon touch water?”

    *nods*

  12. It’s always, very difficult, for all of us to accept the fact that we’d been hurt deeply and badly by our own parents, because they were supposed to love us, but never had, and yet, after we’d figured all of it out, we need to, forgive ourselves for being so vulnerable, for being so young when we were hurt, for not being able to, keep ourselves safe and sound…

  13. Pingback: On Forgiving Those Parents of Ours, for Damaging Us When We Were Still Too Young to Fight Back… – JUST the Unwinding of Thoughts

  37. Ya know there is a lot of truth in this, but I believe that the hold such folks and their betrayals hold on and over us, turn to the ash from which we emerge knowing the truth from the lies. 🙂 ❤

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