The Torment's Wake

The Torment's Wake
blank/free
6-28-11
7 stanzas

the planet quakes
with thunder's vengeful slam
and lightning's frantic zags
spit blue fire across my skies

this will never end
in the torment's wake i am
and in the face of potential
i am gagged and locked away

gentle nudges purr
through my stomach's empty
and i feel how hunger stings
like a new and pressured bruise

this will never fill
the spaces where sleep had fled
and faint siren's exclamations
hang my fledgling head in sorrow

a desert squeezes out
from my squinting, blinking eyes
this tempest's rage mourns a loss
but dawn has arrived regardless

this will never change
i will not sob over broken trees
nor will any storm lie to rest
at the nonchalant wave of hand

the planet quakes
in the torment's wake i stay
i face against its wind, scraped
by rain: tears that damn my strength