Loss
I posted the first draft of this poem a while ago. I hope you enjoy the final version.
Loss
Like a punch, hard, cold
Core-sickening until a lump forms in your throat –
A burr hooking itself in your windpipe –
And breathing is painful to your soul
Like a scream, a tsunami building
From a hidden, hellish place
Gathering all; seaweed and bloodied sharks
It dumps its smash onto the peaceful isle
At sea your mind so lost it’s unrecognisable.
Upstream a decayed relic rots in a forgotten church
Ruin falling on ruined soil
Red pain against the papered white
Like a song, slow, calm
That makes you cry bitterness
And wrap your arms around your waist
A snake comforting as it strangles
Lucy Webster 