Category: poetry

Different truths

Your eyes, your lips speak different truths of their own

The lips if they want to issue trite statements cherry picked from magazines

And the eyes glaze in boredom that the subject isn’t you.

When you talk the story has to say you are a martyr of your own life

Blame for things lie elsewhere, and your doorstep is scrubbed clean

You don’t notice the stains you have made lying there

Shielded from the beginning and never learning to grow or give 

Though you congratulate yourself on your generosity  

You are as transparent as a window pane 

With a memory as murky as a puddle where it suits 

So carry on and drink 

Salute yourself as no one else does 

And you cry into your coffee cup at the lack of understanding  

You aren’t appreciated for the things you might have done 

The world is always the same speaking a different truth 

To  your own sacred song
Ailsa

©AilsaCawleypoetry 2016

Gorgon to dust

Through the crowd they appeared to her
the tormentor
Every nightmare a walking flesh wound dealt, felt
It was then she decided to face it
Head on
Though her heart beat so fast she feared it’s escape
Facing this gorgon of her waking hours
Who held every dream and tried to crush it
To dust
Smile painted on she greets the night fear
The terror of every living hour 
Deciding a fake grin and a proof of life after
Are necessary
Even if the arm pulling her away wants to avoid
She has to face down the power to destroy
It once had
Watching it as it squirms under a level gaze
No longer
The frightened child willing to believe in half truths
Blatant lies or dusty fables fed to kill her
The girl has demolished the demons power
No more running
Her mind given new life, finally.

Ailsa
©AilsaCawleyPoetry 2016

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016

Labyrinth light

The orbs glow brightly to all who will watch their bluish light 

Winking, flashing 

To find them in the distance will take me away far away 

From the labyrinth in which I wander 

I may look lost or aimless 

But something tells me that to leave this place where I can take many routes 

Will lay me on a straight narrow path to darkness 

Where here I am illuminated

The glow may be eerie but so many turns, choices here….

A straight measured road? 

To nothing 

I remain in favour of the labyrinth and my mind tells me 

That when I find the end 

It takes me to a new level the next colourful cavern lit by…..

Who knows what I shall find 
Ailsa

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016

You didn’t , you……

You didn’t you say, that was someone else 

Who felt for you 

They put your words into a real neat line, you didn’t because 

I don’t see it 

The boredom of writing your soul in blood on paper, you? 

You’re not a person who tells me 

Everything 

And if I didn’t see then it can’t be truly you 

Why share your heart in its smallest pieces, or when it’s 

Bursting? 

You don’t, you didn’t ,you couldn’t ,you can’t 

Because I wouldn’t and I want a newer copy of me in you 

That’s all you should be a replica 

No way you believe I could, I would, I did 

I am.

You may have closed the door to realms of possibility 

I mourn it’s loss for you 

I hammered my doors and windows out from their frames 

To be anything I want.

I did. See it or not, I do.

Ailsa

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016

Wise woman

She clears her mind of the thousand thoughts
That tumble like dandelion wishes
Scattered to the wind
And as the canvas clears she is told where
The definitive guide tells her when to stop
Imperceptible to some the slightest change
But it’s there sensing
Heat where none should occur
Her lips move in silent prayer asking for the healing
To change things to a better state
Her hands tingling fingertips afire unable
Unwilling to remove herself unless she has done her job
The one she was compelled,  called to
do
But she must do in secret
As who would believe in a healer?
Would you?

Ailsa
© AilsaCawleyPoetry 2016

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016

Work with me

You asked her work with me any time she’d dissent
Eating her inside the guilt for poor you
Excuses for your actions
Reasons why you didn’t and should
Till she’s sitting on a virtual powder keg pent up, spent
You still say work with me and miss the bitter smile
As she closes the door quietly
So she can rage within her head
Looking through and into the heart of the storm inside you
No longer wondering how to help you quell it
But seeing you keep creating it for yourself
So you can keep her in chains
Made from cobwebs of an old life
Figuring how to break free of you now
No longer excuses that are able to wash
The stains on her memory clean
They are wrapped up in neat boxes weighted by bricks
One day her words will free her mind
And she’ll pity you no more

Ailsa

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016

The walls were greyish

She kept them that way to avoid thinking about the colours

That she might like if she looked 

But it was easier to just keep everything as grey as always 

And then nothing could dim, or tarnish. 

The walls of the cell were greyish.

He asked if painting the walls pretty colours with patterns and things 

To make it a place of freedom and dreams 

She looked at him with bewilderment in her eyes 

And told him sternly to leave then because they are 

The walls of a cell which is always greyish. 

He gave up puzzling about this and dreamed of field of golden barley 

Of hills and beautiful sunsets 

She repeated an oft said phrase with more vehemence 

The walls stay grey because they are as I say 

Always destined to be greyish 

Ailsa

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016

Siren wails

The siren wails her mahogany hair, ruby lips curled back
In knowing contempt
For he can and will come gladly to his doom
Enchanted by the pale white skin 
Urgent calling on the wind for assistance it seems
Not seeing her scorn as final warning
Of his own impending demise
He realises just before it’s too late to turn back
So hypnotised by her smiling sneer
There is nowhere else to turn 
And the only thing visible from shore is a figure eyes wide
Arm waving or maybe drowning
In the murky waters a moment and then sucked under
Tricked by glamour to his own end.

Ailsa

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016

River of expression

She’s careful in choosing her words and expression
For they can give too much
Away or not
Enough
And usually the latter she’s been told often
She tries hard to remain inscrutable a blank canvas
Only wanting to give away a little
Not knowing that if you watch her a while
You need ask no questions no words needed
To see her simmering eyes blazing hot embers
Anger in her measured strides
Though she’s busy trying to be a nice girl
Who doesn’t complain and says things are
Fine, no really …..
And sometimes she crumbles and cracks
The furious tears flowing like a river
That’s worn through the rocks finally to reveal
Just a glimpse of the force behind that one day
Will flood out and leave devastation in their lava like wake

Ailsa

©AilsaCawleyPoetry2016