Tag Archives: maturity

Minotaur’s Sarcophagus

Ref. gettyimages
A simple rubber ducky
plucked from a water-bucket
twirled the surface tension,
stirring broken promises.

Tectonic activity 
and brute Coriolis forces
threw the sleeping monster,
Minotaur, upon ochre clouds.

Crazily aroused, he rampaged, 
in this unexpected setting,
tramping clay underfoot
relying on primitive reflexes
instead of containing his anger.

The stench of sweat,
and the fear of failure,
trapped him in a mortal
brawl of self doubt.

Still maddened, and bellowing 
vexatious oaths, he burnished 
an enamelled labyrinth
into his lonely sarcophagus.

Hearts emptied of  childhood 
dreams, replaced myths with other
tenets, messed with phobias and 
prejudice to colour this 
grand opus, this time on earth.

I am seeking your comments on this piece. Is it too oblique? Perhaps you find it gloomy. It will help me if you take time to pen a comment. Thank you

Coup d’oeil

Fifty-five years wed

The bride is

Without a shadow turning

Troubled by ocular tears

Today she was pumped

With a nostrum used

To curb the canker

Of colon cancer.

As the needle pricked

Into her orbs it

Fed the chemical used

To shrink capillary motions.

We trust the ophthalmologist

Knows the body

As the macular

Sees not – the colon.

Lost in childhood

Mrs James was a big woman.

At Church socials,

I now ask,

Did she deliberately

Attempt to kill young boys?

To mix the crowd

About

We changed partners in the,

Pride of Erin,

And by progressive twirls,

The Barn Dance.

Twice

I had been

Unwillingly jammed tight

Between

Those girls.

At those dances.

(For levity

I use name Christine

Calls her ample bosoms

These

Many decades later.)

Tonight –

As she approached –

She would again

Crush my face betwixt

Her body.

My boyhood fear

Was

I would

Asphyxiate

Wedged in the flesh

And suffocate.

The music stopped

And I

Grew to

Appreciate

The unfounded fear

Was want of

Confidence.