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Sheila J Sadr Oct 2014
I am afraid to be afraid too afraid
        to be still but still healing still
afraid to open all my heavy doors that
        he has seen too much unkempt skin
                 that I am afraid of him that we

are broken that he was always broken but we are nothing
         but bandaged apricots in the rotting August sun and he
is afraid we have too much or not enough time
         afraid of us afraid of me afraid to speak but he
                 breathes hot scorpion-kissed lullabies into

my neck into scarlet corners of my pituitary
         poisons all my wearied nerves I used to call him
master used to master our loose laundry I
        refused to fold used to master our loose smiles
                 in front of people I refused to fold for

I used to accept his virulent apologies after business trips
        I used to be afraid of him he used to be afraid
of my amphibian temper afraid of how I
        waxed and waned through tempestuous waters afraid
                that he was always drowning

I am afraid of the dark blue ghosts their red
        angry heat I am afraid to eat cartridged
bullets of my own words silver gunpowdered
        shrapnels if I eat them all lead like you would
seep into the insides of my abdomen

my insides are unreachable have a little
        too much sunshine to carry along when spring
arrives I am scared because the light
        comes in with brilliant blazing eyes
               and sees everything

                            October 8, 2014 7:04 AM
Inspired by "I'm afraid to be afraid" by Victoria Chang
K Balachandran Nov 2015
Fallen deeply in to a pit, devoid of words,
           marked by shrapnels of  silence,that repeatedly explode,
her soul in pain, yearned to caress him once again
            with fingers of repentance, rekindle the love frozen
but then, he wasn't moved by the tender feeling
              to seek or grant forgiveness  for old times sake,
wearing  a crusted armor, he had crossed the Rubicorn,
              that subtle level where such things of heart matters.
raw with love Jul 2015
To Sam*

We were stellar; we shone so bright, with our own light, spectacular, blinding. For a while there, you got me believing in forever. You made me think that somehow, a thing so pure, so strong, could last for an eternity. I was truly convinced that ten, thirty, fifty years from now, I'd reach out and your hand would still be there. I had faith in us, in how innocent and pure what you and I had was, in how love, true love, unblemished by carnal desires, could still have a place in our world. I believed in the simplicity of 'my soul loves your soul and it has been so since the beginning of time.' Your hand in my hand was the safest, most secure place in the world. I sometimes existed simply because of the fact that we were invincible and would last long after the stars had all died out. How stupid, how childish.
We were floating, building castles of thin air up on the clouds, and came down to earth not with a bump but with a crash. With an explosion. I sometimes stand in the middle of the living room, spaced out, and wonder, what now? I feel this whole in my stomach, as if a black hole has swallowed all my insides, and there's an endless void inside of me, and someone keeps punching me so I double up, but the fists don't stop- and then a moment of bliss, and it all starts over. A modern-day Prometheus trapped in the confines of my own mind.
The whole world's turned bellicose, and I don't even bother avoiding the shrapnels; could any physically inflicted pain hurt more than the storm inside of me? The only certain thing in my life went to ruins; turned to pieces so suddenly, without the slightest effort. And I think, were we really so brittle? If the backbone of my existence crushed so easily, what is there to say about the rest of my life? My strongest belief was shattered, and thus, all my other beliefs turned out to be evanescent.
I sometimes wish one of us had died. In this way, I would have someone, something external to blame, someone else rather than myself, rather than you, to hold responsible for what happened. Someone else, something else to be angry at for taking you away from me. Because now I am left with bitter disappointment at humanity's inability to preserve something so innocent and rare as the love we shared. But we're both alive, aren't we? Forced to exist separately, forced to breathe on our, and to build our castles in the clouds by ourselves, because when you break china dolls and crystal glasses, you don't put them back together. You just stand there with your hands bleeding from trying to pick  up the pieces.
she says
i should neither touch her
light-plastered fringes
nor the sibilance
of eyes.

it would be unwise
while i am amidst
the storm of laughing
if you say
that my heart
does not shatter
in our despondence.

trilling in light
is the colloid of breath
foaming in the silence
shrapnels of this mellifluous
separation - we, flawed,
dawdling is this punctuation
of you and i
are no more

because you do not
gape with the voice
of sweetness like a cigarette
receiving the shadow
of my once dark being,
yet, someone within me
whose hands still carve
the figure reminds me
of
you.
I abandon all tears;
My conscience seeks peace.
My wholeness has gone;
Gone like my faith, alone.

The youth and serendipity
The blood that breathed in me
Now turning into wrath;
My coined life is virile and mad.

What is around me;
All lost in promiscuity;
Here, there shall be no heaven
Here, love has no words—nor passion.

Who speaks about me,
To understand or see me;
All are sinking into shrapnels,
And the lonesome heat feels like hell.

All is part of dark tunnels,
Channeling out into brown seas,
Living by unseen funnels
Unfelt by the breeze.

All is not blind, but sad
Shrivelling in bold air,
Their youths, I cannot wed
But lonely nights are fair.

I withdraw all affairs;
That they shall subside
And blend into those lights,
Those I have never cheered.

I hold my breath anew
I have been here to the core,
The lenient feelings that knew;
I should not stay once more.
pia Jul 2017
hold me together
as i come undone
i pretend that
these shrapnels of
you aren't digging
into my skin
we are hurting
we are broken
but we are one
we'll walk on faulty
bridges and lean on
crumbling walls but
i trust that you won't
break down
in the end the weight
of my broken pieces
were just too much for
you weren't they?
Death-throws Oct 2016
Hey I know youll read this
Welcome to my life bub.

It's  a mess in here. My head  that is,
Broken glass and shrapnels of lead.
Ive hired  some cleaners before.  No ones ever come willingly
So it means alot that you want the job,
Because  this mess is killing me.
Good luck
Eloisa May 2020
She was molded by life’s mischances,
combats, and hurts.
Shrapnels and shattered glass
are stuck in her hands.
Her toes are burned from walking
through agonizing fire.
The endless fights and struggles
made her dark and cold.
But she remembers
each savage war
she has won.
With her loyal heart,
her armor,
and her fortress,
her passionate soul.
She continues to face her battles
and uses her torment
to wear badges
of strength
and courage
adorned with golden fronds.
She knows when wars are over,
the flowers will still be
bright and beautiful.
sadik sheikh Apr 2021
tremor violently shook the ground
quake ruptures the earth
doors banged as windows swayed aimlessly
glasses shattered
tables shifted

mother earth groaned
building collapsed upon a household
family frantically screamed under the rubble
yet strange eerily calm like a silent scream

sunset on gloomy October
six and a half moon past dusk
the epicentre of the earthquake i only arrived today albeit late
no permanent marker just a heap of fading soil like a shifting dune
but this flower always blooms
what a lush grave!

i scooped a handful of soil
symbolically infusing it with sacred memory
static still i stood like a stump
by the grave a day and half
involuntary tears trickle down
like a ceaseless rain down my cheeks

how did it happened brother?
mystery permeates through the body
mighty heart faltered
pressure rise and blood raged
brain shuts as a permanent sleep occured the family way
Overwhelmed arteries did a critical blood vessel ruptured?

calm before the storm lingering destiny disturbed the sleep
when agitated sky formed a teardrop impression on a drifting cloud
hovering angel of death pointed a laser pen down a sapient soul
shrapnels shrills in the wake of exploding stars
siren blows then a sonic boom
shooting star striked a patriarch with pinpoint accuracy
did the space war commenced on my family?
had illusions played a belligerent tricks on us?

doomsday upon us a fuming angel lands
with a roaring death ensued by a deafening cry
futile effort medics scrambled
to resuscitate a departed soul
no response
no replay
yet no rewind
as you skip the trial did the voyage of no return began?

two hours late did i read the news
impulsive tremor didn't a sudden apocalypse
seemed a vision to me?
only ten days later had i registered the event

meandering metaphors entwined in my story
tidal waves of poetic expressions in writing
sea of spontaneous emotions unleashed
chronicle of earthquake complete
comma or a colon
is a question mark missing?


how close you are brother!
A mere two meter deep or six feet between us
yet a distance universe of cosmic dust
perched in a looming heaven of beaming galaxies
soaring towards a remote planet
beyond the hearing range of life
you walked  a thousand  night straight
covered a million miles of cinematic landscape
like a flashlight through a wall, impenetrable layer obstruct my accent
gravity holding me back
how can i reach you brother?

can't gauge the depth of this black hole
tossed in a volatile void of grief and sorrow
i lost my bearing in this maze of vivid memories

you were my anchor
you were my  guardian too
allah show me the path
lord help me emerge from this shell
like a pupa out of a cocoon

this grave the epicentre of the earthquake
ground zero i stand
closure i seek
structure of simplicity this grave
holds a seismic story and the body of a pious man-my brother.
    
      tremor - by sadik sheikh
Yenson Nov 2020
if any drivels impacted
he says,
absolutely confidently

or I feel the the slightest touch
of shrapnels

or see or suffer any damage
direct or collateral
mental or physical

or feel caught in the crossfire
of IED seeds planted

or ingest news of doom and gloom
of my fate on the war fronts
to my detriment

or even harbour the slightest worry
for a millisecond
about it all

I WILL BE OUTTA HERE IN
NANOSECONDS
faster than the speed of light
never to show my face
here again

I SURE HAVE THAT CHOICE
believe me, I was born ready

for its all about SURVIVAL
of that I know a thing or two
survival of the fittest

as it is I am merely toying with
raw recruits, untrained civvies
and untalented redundant psychos
looking for some lost relevance

so inept and slapstick pointless
they are almost giving ****** mentalists
a good name

fancy that.......
Any others laugh so much on their own, they honestly wish they could share the jokes with those hateful sour dour unintelligent people you would normally avoid or even those low of the lowest - those useless stinking pointless insecure dumb people who are bullies .....

— The End —