Too Close to the Edge

The midnight lake puts its lips

to my eyes and drinks every

starlight wish swimming in hazel.

Not satisfied with the brew of visions

it sends watery death into my lungs

to flood my last breath of July.

Thrashing in waves of lost I am tossed

the life preserver of 1:00 am and a cat

purring rescue across my chest.

Shaken I reach for pen and paper

beside my bed and pray my muse

has escaped the drowning pool of empty.

©Susie Clevenger 2018

Real Toads ~ The Tuesday Platform

Impugning An Orchid

You thought I was too fragile,

an orchid requiring more

than you were willing to give.

You sat beneath a rain

of jealous opinions and

let them damn me before

you even knew my strength.

Loss only makes you the fool.

I am much wiser now with my heart.

I can breathe in my freedom, while

you whither where I  bloom.

©Susie Clevenger 2018

Sanaa gave a selection of word lists at Real Toads to inspire our writing.
I chose the following words: breathe, rain, loss orhcid

Real Toads ~ Get Listed ~ July Edition

Spoiled Tongues Scar Faces

Judgmentals malign sister crow

with whispered gossip

jealous perked in spoiled tea.

She ignores their babble

polluting the wind, and gathers

silhouettes to wallpaper memory.

Spoiled tongues scar faces.

The eye of I is an open window

where what is spoken is always seen.

Beware when attacking a sister,

words carried on feathers

may return in a murder of wings.

©Susie Clevenger 2018

Real Toads ~ The Tuesday Platform

Crow image by pngtree.com