Photo by Debasish Ghosh
It’s the start of a new year. We leave behind a year that many of us won’t miss, a year which seemed relentless with global news and human meanness.
I realise now, there is a limit to our control. We can stand up for our beliefs, we can make art, and treat others with kindness and compassion, but we also have a duty to ourselves to reenergise and not let the weight of the world burden us too deeply.
This year, when we press reset, I’ll turn to the light. I’ll remind myself of simple pleasures and small acts of kindness. I don’t want to consume more or strive more.
I want to just be, and allow the others around me to just be. My goal is less consumption and more creativity. Weaning myself off social media (read facebook) and more walks in the woods. More listening and less anger. Fewer trite conversations and a deepening of connections instead.
I wish you peace and contentment. I hope the stars shine for you in 2019.
***
Shifting Skin
Under a canopy of marbled planets
or on the curl of a crescent moon
or in the crater of a crumbling star
in a far flung galaxy
a woman woke
Ghostly china doll
unnatural beauty with Cupid lips
a crack under her left eye
from the words they had hurled like arrows
into the bruised flesh of her heart
She smiled when they demanded it
lit up the sea face with her luminosity
When her sheen faded
she fired up the furnace
melted herself
–into something new
with a warrior cry that no-one heard
Her shards a ragged kaleidoscope in the sun
in their careless hands, delighting anew
the memory of her anguish erased
When they grew bored
they ground her down into the earth
She lay bewildered by their brutish smiles
underneath their booted feet
sinking into the fertile earth
Until blistering wildfires raged
reanimating her rusting heartbeat
transforming her into a molten stream
iron-maiden, capable of taking any form
Determined–at last, not to be
their plaything
Chained and a changeling for their ends
She swore not to worship blackened hearts
in gentile masks who never bend or bow
before any living thing
but instead live in thrall to their egos
