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Sunlight flares across the glass as her face stares out, eyes wreathed in wrinkles and slitted slightly, thin mouth drawn down in pain or bitterness or maybe disappointment.
Blue sky reflects in the faded pupils and silvery hair whispers like fairy floss above the pink scalp.  Pale blotchy skin creases and pleats itself over the bone structure.
She lifts a veined, liver spotted hand, knotty with arthritis, to her lips.
I study the outline of her face, looking for the young girl with long, glossy brown hair I remember. She of the thrown back throat, ready laugh and warm smile.
The passionate one - forgiving quickly because she loved much and was loved in return.
She's survived her husband by many lonely years.  
Ah, wait! - there's the dimple hidden in the folded skin.  
Time stands still as we search each other's eyes, looking for a connection until I notice a tear sliding down along her nose.
I turn away from the mirror.
© Emmie van Duren 21st April 2017
I have tried to show her
That love is not a waste.
She lays upon my chest at night,
My arms around her waist

She will cry in her sleep,
There's nothing I can do
Every time I open my eyes,
She's a new shade of blue.

I hate seeing her sad.
It tears my heart apart.
I just want to make her happy
She's my own form of art.
Perceptions askew, world torn apart
What was once in the light, now in dark
I can feel the anguish, the pain, the dispair
The sunken looks of disdain brought on by misery,
hearts and hopes in need of repair
Stand my ground and let it be...
The time will come for them to see
It's not my place to change their view
Compassionate stance when my colour turns blue
I am lifted up to another height inner seeking of others with same horizon in sight
The point of view is a changin'
 Apr 2017 Rainswood
Gidgette
You know who you are
Bruised Peaches
Those hit, hidden
Shamed
Belittled and bitten
By the very people we loved most
Mocked
For staying with the bearers of our
Bruises
We warrior spouses
Some of the peaches are lucky
we rolled from the pain baskets
Others have to stay for seedlings
This particular peach
After years of bruises
Nearly got squished between the fingers
of a bruise bearer
And I'm bitter mush
But I'm still whole
And all the while
He whispered,
I love you, I love you little peach
He gave me a seedling
She grew
and with her
My knowledge grew
It took the kingsmens axe
To cut me from that dead tree
But thank God
This peach, is free
~A
It's the hardest thing in the world to leave an abusive relationship. We're often made to believe it's our own fault. Even after one leaves, the lawyers, judges, counselors even, make you feel "less than".
I rarely write of my awful marriage. Even today I'm ashamed. And I know that it wasn't anything I did but that fact escapes me sometimes. My love to you all. Especially the Peaches.
 Apr 2017 Rainswood
Shivani Lalan
oh but my love is not
a red, red rose.
i chose to replace
every tear on my face
with dying embers
of every memory
you said you would remember.

i trust
that you must know
that i am not a summer's day,
i will never play
at being warm
or temperate.

you can berate
me for not knowing
whether i am to be
or not to be,
but forgive me
if i don't play by the rules
and exit
the right stage
in a wrong scene.

it just means
that your music
is not the food of my love.
i will continue to shove
your thoughts
under a carpet of denial.

do not throw away
any vial you might find
in my room,
you sealed my doom
when you stomped down
that staircase,
tripping on the last time
we went for a walk.

my face doesn't run
smooth like the course of love,
you should have known
this truth.

my eyes are not rose petals,
my heart not a white dove,
my love
when they say hell is empty,
they haven't been inside
my mind -
here
you'll find horrors
of a sweet kind.
Alt title - trash that my 12 y/o self would have absolutely loved.

This is hilarious, I've been laughing non stop.
 Apr 2017 Rainswood
Corvus
Stars sprinkle the inky night sky
Like crumbs of diamonds on a still, midnight ocean.
I am not afraid to be here, alone,
In the vastness of twilight.
For these few moments, time is as long
As the space between those stars,
And as empty, too.
The uncertainty that sunrise will follow.
As sure as the sun is destined to rise everyday,
When there's only darkness surrounding you,
Pierced slightly by the silvery glow of moonlight...
You're all alone and helpless.
You only have the vague hope that the sun will return.
And as I sit here now, star-gazer,
Faceless nomad on the damp grass;
I feel immortal, and I am afraid
That I will always be alone with the stars.
 Apr 2017 Rainswood
Edward Coles
Be kind to yourself.
You have come so far.
Each emotion you feel tattooed
to your skin
the seasons wash away like chalk.

Be kind to yourself.
You are braver than you thought.
No longer scared of what lies
beneath your bed
but what awaits when you wake up.

Be kind to yourself.
You are worthy of love.
Only you give permission
for forked tongues
to leave passing words as lasting scars.

Only you can adopt old failures
and stack them as obstacles
upon each new path.
You cannot dictate what will be
only – who you are.

Be kind to yourself.
You are doing enough.
You cannot always be switched on.
Sometimes you have to lay down
and breathe –

it is not greed.
If you are always exhausted
you cannot help anybody.

Be kind to yourself.
You did not grow
from a single cell
born from a dying star
in order to feel so small.

You did not close the door
on friends when you expected
more from them.
Why beat yourself up
for who you were before?

Be kind to yourself.
A faltering dancer who gets up
again and again
draws the loudest applause
at the curtain call.

A person who spent half their life
at war with themselves
knows the value of peace,
the feat of getting out the house;
the measure of good mental health.

Be kind to yourself.
You have come so far.
They say ten thousand hours
is the time it takes
to master an art.

You spent so much longer than that
learning the patterns of your heart.
You can pull at those common threads
that keep you together
even when you are falling apart.

Be kind to yourself.
You are stronger than you thought.
Like Leonard says,
“there’s a crack of light in everything. “
You do not have to be perfect.

You do not have to live in the dark.
Be kind to yourself.
Make sure you get to the end.
Do not worry
how you stumbled at the start.
C
 Apr 2017 Rainswood
Mike Hauser
Allow me my love to lift you up
Through the best and worst of times
With mountains beyond these foothills
Arm in arm we both will climb

Don't mind the daily pressures
That tend to come from every side
Or the weight of the situation
As you are heavy on my mind

At the turn of every tunnel
Though dim there is a light
Helps in keeping focused
In never losing sight

If you can count on anything
It's the true love of my might
No matter the weight of the rainy days
You are heavy on my mind

Life can be counted off in seconds
In its maddening rush of time
If along the way there are no lessons
Consider it a crime

Don't make light of the situation
Or of the chains that bind
You are the mix inside of the making
As you are heavy on my mind
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