Fleeing Triage

A clay king, an idol

A god without form

Armed with a bible

The fearful conform

 

Lend power to bricks

And flesh and time

Barricades and limits

Amass the mind

 

Steadfast and permanent

Illusory – cling

Look not to the firmament

“Hail to the King!”

 

In sleep, submit

In sorrow, awaken

A good slave, commit

A soul forsaken

 

Trickles of light

Flicker in doubt

Vision ignite

Reflections about

 

It’s all interwoven

This cosmic design

Where nothing is broken

And all is divine

 

A king’s mirage

A cryptic wave

Elope to triage

Wounded slave

 

Freedom – omniscience

King’s demise

Salvage innocence

And slavery dies

 

~ © Susan Ance ~ 

Image from The Indian Economist

Sketching Hearts

Full circling around in synchronicity

A parallel divine, once mine, is missing me

Beyond all reason, a trip into history

Through warps in time, exposed to the mystery

 

Deja vu from the blue slips clearly out of view

And times once sublime won’t replay in my mind

I give what I need, hand over my dues

‘Til I have nothing left but the rhythm and blues

 

Repeat what I think singing word for word

Intoxicate heavily my need to be sure

To wrap my legs around the truly absurd

To wrap my mind around the myths of the world

 

Sketching hearts wrapped in death, or ice cream, or zoos

Sketching hearts wrapped in comics, or snakes, or booze

Synchronicity springs, puts the bounce in my shoes

And I bounce, and I bounce…there is nothing to lose

 

~ © Susan Ance ~ 

 

 

To Breathe Water

Everything’s intensified

Quiet music, amplified

Slow drive, a jetted ride

A tiny fear, I’m petrified

 

Innocent saint, a hidden gun

Waiting on the Holy One

In total chaos, having fun

A sudden end, that’s just begun

 

Voices haunting, comfort me

Imprisoned soul, and I am free

It’s someone else, I long to be

Land animal, tossed into the sea

 

Careless whispers in the breeze

Atheist upon her knees

Broken pieces that I seize

A hardened heart that tries to please

 

An empty soul snatched out of death

A heavy sigh, without a breath

Such is my life, without a rest

Such is my life, with no request

 

~ © Susan Ance ~ 

Soul Defender

Our lives are running parallel

We’re trapped in icy caves

We cling to hope in dismal drips

Once masters now but slaves

 

We flit about in emptiness

The effort takes its toll

But when we meet our spirits bloom

Velvet petals in the soul

 

Like a sword penetrating the flesh

We return to our hollowed out pits

So the salt can be ground in the open wound

How we yearn as we sit counting minutes

 

A lone laugh echoes in the caves

The tears we shed, ignored

The hour comes when we shall meet

So much yet unexplored

 

Memories molded, fired and bronzed

My savior from this hole

I reach for you from murky sands

As you defend my soul

 

~ © Susan Ance ~

Shift and Slam

I hate the noise the moon makes

When at night all I ask for is sleep

And the nausea I feel when I think of my life

How I writhe and contort and feel beat

 

And I hate when the sun scratches sand in my eyes

When my mind jumbles all it entails

Restless and craving omniscience of life

Through a tangle of dead-end trails

 

I hate when the wind crashes into this vessel

And levels my insides to naught

When I only expected a hint of a breeze

In a furious hurricane, caught

 

I hate it when the undertow swallows my dreams

With it’s greed, to its belly, whole

My dreams are the essence upon which it feeds

They fester like lava in the seat of its soul

 

How I can be tortured by small twists of fate

In cyclones, they blast away all I create

When the true and the real shift and slam me in haste

‘Til all I can taste is the hope that I waste

 

~ © Susan Ance ~

Secret Garden

I’m a withering poppy

Too long in the sun

I thirst for cool water

A sip from your passion

 

You taste my seeds

Save my heart from abscission

Become high with my opiate

Immersed in fruition

 

We frolic in secret

In gardens under the rose

Holding dear to the trellis

Careful not to expose

 

You trust me to sprinkle

Drops of dew to your pith

And we silently wonder

If all else is a myth

 

So we wither apart

Undernourished by duty

Separated by worlds

Without passion or beauty

 

But we cling to the earth

With the roots of a forest

Holding on to the obvious

Unfolding before us

 

Nature created us

An osmosis of twin

We wait in our dormancy

For the spring to begin

 

~ © Susan Ance ~

Heart and Soil

I battled death, he had no heart

My skills defined “behavior art”

Awakened long before his arrival

I understood my soul’s survival

 

He disguised himself behind warm eyes

And sweetened words to hide the lies

But when I looked into the mirror

A courageous woman would appear

 

He played a game, and played it well

A price I paid, a place called hell

My rules were carved in stone, you see

A gift from Chippewa and Cree

 

Blood and spirit are the soil

Their gardens rich with sweat and toil

Their essence is the atmosphere

I’ve learned to cast away my fear

 

~ © Susan Ance ~

Sharing Sorrow

Something pains you

Something deep

I hear your sorrow

In silence, weep

 

My heart is parched

I taste your tears

I wipe them dry

Retrace the smears

 

Let my essence

Wrap around you

I bleed the same

It’s why I found you

 

Fall into my life

Soothe the ache

Allow me to love

I need you, awake

 

~ © Susan Ance ~

Faded Image

You flash your emotional nakedness and sip on a fizzy, chocolate soda. The bus is soon to arrive.

You hear the squeals and laughter of children playing in swings in the park across the street.

There’s a black and white photograph of you with a bent corner and a wrinkle haphazardly placed in some guy’s wallet and you have no idea he exists.

Hope is present everywhere.

~ © Susan Ance ~

It’s Just Another Day

In my mind when I saw myself, you were always with me.

The places I’d go, who I meant to myself, I know now that you miss me.

I carried a dream, too high for real life, in a sickening kind of way,

And now I see myself alone, and I know I’ll be ok.

 

To you goodbye means now and forever, as if it never was,

So I picture you now gone for good, a hazy, little fuzz.

And I walk on by in the afternoon, just passing time away,

To the bookstore and the coffee shop, it’s just another day.

 

I climbed a mountain, swam the seas, I even touched the sun.

I burned out all my thoughts of you, returning back to one.

I hike a trail and jog a lap, a solo in this world.

Removing you in every way, I know you miss this girl.

 

I pried my shells apart for you, but couldn’t find my pearl,

Until you left that magic day and gave me back my world.

And all is well inside my soul and peace comes back to me.

And I am strong, and I am free, to be, to live in sanity.

 

I cannot say a word to you, it’s as if you never existed.

I know what I know, had something to learn, but I know somehow you missed it.

You might be well, or tortured still, it doesn’t mean a thing.

My soul does flips, it leaps and bounds, I soar on magic wings.

 

I’m one again, complete and whole, and I know that you miss me.

I can’t remember how you touch, or feel, or how you kissed me.

A smile returns, and tension fades, relieved to be myself.

I know you see me in your head, while sitting by yourself.

 

Nothing was the way it seemed, I straightened out my edges.

Did you have a face, or a name, or a soul? I cannot see the nexus.

Dream on until your conscience clears, think sweetly of my absence.

You miss the way I made you feel, my manic, rhythmic dances.

 

You knew me well, or thought you did, it doesn’t even matter.

I’m singing in my sleep again, aware of life untattered.

I know you miss me and regret that you do,

You see my face, but I’m gone and it’s true.

 

You lift your head, but your sorrow remains.

I fly right on by, looking down at the chains,

The broken links like plastic twist.

I know you miss me, but you don’t exist.

 

~ © Susan Ance ~