October rain Cloud

the poui blossoms are different this year

subtle and soft like yellow fingertips

stretched across barbed wire fences

while feet are planted in boots

stuck in mud as thick as an October rain cloud

an inch is all that is needed

for skin to embrace skin

but no one can move

or wants to move

since fear grips like a tranquilizer

numbing emotions

and I am slowly forgetting

how to feel

yellow petals fall around me

smiles mask remnants of the love I remember

erasing the longing I carry inside my back pack

ever since I stitched and ripped and stitched and ripped

and stitched my heart shut from feeling

i am on a journey to bury the past

sprinkling flowers in this tear-soaked pillow soil

waiting for the first shoots of something

to grow

that doesn’t resemble any fruit

I’ve tasted before.

C. 2011 by Paula Obe

First published by 
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