Dread and beauty
pour from my veins,
gratitude and surrender.
Life is fragile
like threads come undone.
I raise my glass to celebrate
yet I feel despair at
how broken we are,
on this bridge from the past
to this moment.
Seekers praise though
they have silent doubts
they have not tasted the rain
or the blood on the streets.
A high school cheerleader
chasing the dragon
overdosed in the back of
a gas station,
parked behind the trash cans
and recycled bins
and roaches crawling
to their freedom.
Those that believe
to be proper claim to
know what it's like
to be a mother or father
of lost souls,
they will correct your grammer,
look you in the eye
and pretend
that they understand
all because they were in Woodstock
and shared a bong with
a rock star.
Dread and beauty
pour from my veins
sadness evokes the thunder
in my heart.
At http://dversepoets.com/ we are writing about light and darkness.
The sadness when you ride that dragon too far.. ouch.. the contrast between the gas station and the young cheerleader.. what a truly disastrous effect of romancing that ride... This as truly dark..
ReplyDelete"I raise my glass to celebrate
ReplyDeleteyet I feel despair at
how broken we are" - this resonated with me; a lot of times we have something to celebrate for ourselves/others, but deep down we feel the despair... great contrast between the light/dark.
I feel the sadness for that poor cheerleader & poor lost souls ~ You have captured the ambivalence between light and darkness Ayala ~ There are lots of shades in between ~
ReplyDeleteOh I like 'thunder in the heart' .....distinctly and superbly written..
ReplyDeleteI love how you express this. I can feel the emotion in your "voice". I think no one understands well enough, what it's like to be devastated by drugs. Good write Anaya.
ReplyDeleteEmotional description of light and darkness and the visuals they create.
ReplyDeleteSuch an evocative write, Ayala. Life is so fragile--the bit about the cheerleader made me so sad.
ReplyDelete"Dread and beauty
ReplyDeletepour from my veins"
Words that are as powerful in their context at the beginning as at the end.
That bong can lead one down a deep dark hole
ReplyDeleteClosing stanza is killer; love the spunk, the candor confronting those who hawk advice, those out-of-touch liberals who would hug a stone if it had lipstick on. Liked the lines/they have not tasted the rain/or the blood on the streets/.
ReplyDelete"Life is fragile
ReplyDeletelike threads come undone"... as are so many people else why so much drug abuse and suicide? Powerful words you've written.
dread and beauty - almost an addiction when combined.
ReplyDeletein the US it can be easy yes..for some of us to claim grace from the blood on the streets that does continue to flow in so many places..here and there and over there..not in my backyard..oh how graced i am..but no.. i refuse to forget blood and rain too..as those too..are my brothers and sisters too....not unlike the blue jay..that tells me he or she..is here to stay...away from guns and bullets just a feeder to treat..another day..in paradise found..away..from paradise lost...
ReplyDeleteSuch deaths are so hard for all to think about. All that potential coming to an end in such a horrific way! The ultimate darkness.
ReplyDeleteNo one likes to see lives over all too soon. Such a compassionate write.
ReplyDeleteprofoundly sad. i loved those first two lines especially, repeated at the end & coupled to the thunder in your heart... ahh...
ReplyDeletetruth is hard, sad...and evokes thunder in heart...such powerful expression...wonderful write Ayala...
ReplyDeletethe opening pairings of "opposites" (dread/beauty, gratitude/surrender, celebrate/despair) works really nicely. oh, and how true, "Life is fragile / like threads come undone."
ReplyDeleteso sad and beautiful
ReplyDeleteNotes From A Metro Line
Dread and beauty - they inhabit our very fibre. So we always pray that beauty ever prevails. Your piece is haunting and well written, Ayala.
ReplyDeleteTo see life snuffed out at such a young age is especially saddening. Your opening line caught me right away.
ReplyDeleteSuch stark imagery in these words. Dread and beauty, the pendulum swings between these two very diametric opposite places of life.
ReplyDeletelight and darkness and joy and desperation lie so close together...and it frightens me as well sometimes how fragile we are and how easy we break
ReplyDeleteA lot of sadness here...I felt it reading the words. Nothing sadder than a young life lost...
ReplyDeletea heartfelt sadness and loss here. how easily things change at a moment's notice
ReplyDelete