She is nude
Dearticulate
Her nipples graze the passage of her downfall
Blood is dry and hennaed between her thighs
Who stand witness
To aborted possibility cut short
Held glistening above her in crucifixed parody
She will never bear life
It is not her weft and the thick choker around her neck
Tightens as reminder
If she grows swollen it will be from loss not gain
No feeling of a child pushing its way out
Only the deadening cold taste of metal on her skin
A doctor’s “tut, tut” and rough handling, his voice a graze
Staining her inevitable socially affixed shame
She stares out of a small window
Paint pealing like tears on the empty sill
Where a bird sits sheltering from rain
She thinks of him cutting his way into her with flint eyes
Hands around her throat, pulling her apart
A flashlight douses darkness, shining on blood and her hand
Reaching out
She is empty now
Passion snuffed, an ember no longer close to surface
She is an arroyo dried and crusted over
She is a gourd grown without seed
Disappointment is her meal, she is a featherless bird on wire
Dried empty by sun and rinsed of music
Before this, her watermelon body swayed in water-sprinklers
Feasting on her abundance and possibility
All that would be, all that would be
Is laid waste
Tumbleweed and Joshua tree
Punishment and consequence
The rapist will return at night to his wife and
Three blonde children
She will recover from her tears and cuts
Even the shame of feeling his soil enveloping her
But she will never
Never
Forget what he took in miscarried act
What would happen if we swapped vision?
The fridgidity of growth or a certain constraint
Because if you split my casing I would possess less chance
My surround would envelop your shadows and night cross twice
For women have a shorter life and a longer one
Small boned with narrow shoulders and deep set eyes
Stretching barren like a long road through desert
If she could turn the knife around
Press it gently against his steady pulse
Cut out the evil as he removed her chance
To fill her arms
With life
TheFeatheredSleep 
very powerful. I’ve had it in mind for a long time and now I’m going to get back to your site and read through all of you poems…
Thank you gorgeous one. I wish we could somehow collaborate on something as I always get so inspired by your mind and thoughts. If we were neighbors I know we’d be writing at least three books together … but in absence of that I am glad to know you and you always give me a hundred ideas. You are one of the most creative people I am lucky enough to know. I miss you.
Beautiful read…as always. 😊
Heartrending… ❤
A kind of loss the full measure of which only a woman can truly know, but if she can tell it thus a mere male can feel some of its truth.
Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
TheFeatheredSleep – A particularly female tragedy
Wonderfully profound!
awww…well. now that I am painting, perhaps we should combine some paintings with your poetry. But the problem is that won’t make you money. I would like to help you somehow financially. Maybe one day I will figure out a way how to do that. If on the other hand, you want to try writing some children’s books or faerie tales and you want me to illustrate, I think you could make money on those. And what would be really nice is if you could somehow blend some of your poetry (but for children) into them. I think it could be done. some books are just so lyrical. I read a marvelous faerie tale that was an update to Persephone’s search for Cupid and it has a very lyrical refrain (advice from the winds to the girl to find her lover).
Also, if you look at Grimms, you also find refrains that are poetic which are embedded within the stories.
Princess Florecita and the Iron Shoes is the name of that book. I wish we lived closer, too. Name the place! 😉
whoops, that was PSYCHE looking for cupid, my mistake..
Fabulous!
This is a harrowing subject, literal and metaphorical and it’s so hard to write about. You do it well, with all the pain.
Wow..beyond amazing writing. So much imagery and emotion it overwhelms in the most gratifying of ways
This is amazing. And yes, so are you. ❤
Gut wrenching storying.
Oh my gosh! This is gutwrenchingly raw not only in the tale it tells. but also in the immensity of the grief that has to be carried in woman’s empty vessel of life. Wow and wow again for the bravery and courage it took to tell this tale. Only you could spell out unbelievable heartache in a way that the reader can’t help but feel what the victim felt and be hurt by it as well. Je t’aime, N 🙂 ❤ xoxoxoxox
I can never fathom how it must feel like to be a woman and everything it entrails, but pieces like this help for a better understanding. This feels really raw with pain but also like there is a sense of empowerment seeping through the liness especially the ending…
I meant “entail”… sorry, I’m a little sleep-deprived…
So strongly visceral
Everything from, “What would happen if we swapped vision?” is simply marvelous. Another powerful piece.
Reblogged this on The Militant Negro™.
Breaks my heart…. vivid and powerful images!
This made me cry. But thank you for that, it’s a stunning write!
Dear Kunal thank you so much my friend for reading and commenting. I am so appreciative of you and you letting me know this touched you. I am really happy. Thank you again
Hit my gut and tugged at my heartstrings, Candice! Sad as it was, it was beautiful!
Honestly this may sound weird but I like sad poetry when it’s real and it’s about something important so I’m so glad you liked it too because sometimes I write these sadder ones and they are not liked as much as the uplifting or the humorous and yet they’re what I would say speak loudest. Thank you for your encouragement it means so much to me and to you I am grateful my friend
May I hug you virtually? Take care!
Of course much appreciated and take care also! Thanks again my friend
Feather this is powerful and grim. And it makes me wonder about our nature.
Indeed my friend 💓