at least now
i can give you this.
.
that you are not responsible
for the landscape
of us.
.
i planted.
you ripped it all out.
without knowing,
i suppose.
.
you watered.
i let the hot sun fall.
on purpose,
i suppose.
.
at least now,
i can give you this.
.
— absolution.
.
© Liezel Graham 2019.
.
a reflection on how sometimes, we apportion blame unfairly onto the shoulders of another,
.
when relationships are planted and watered by two pairs of hands.
.
Photograph by Zachary de Bottis.
.
.
.
.
#poetry #poetryporn #poetrycommunity #words #wordsmith #relationships #relationshipquotes #marriage #friendship #spilledink #spilledthoughts #iweepinink #liezelgraham #liezelgrahampoetry #indiepoet #indiepoetry #potd #wordporn #learningtoletgo #absolution
the postman with his monday smile, brings me a crisp
.
‘to the parents of’
letter,
.
filled to all four corners with heavy words
.
alleles,
genetics,
and chromosomes,
.
and after the words have read me,
.
from top to bottom,
and inside out,
.
i leave it lying face down on the kitchen table.
.
my son is in the other room,
chocolate smears around his mouth, all the way down to where my father’s dimple cleaves his boy-chin.
.
he laughs from deep within his soft belly, dancing to a song that only he can hear inside his head.
his smile can set paper on fire.
.
he holds both his hands out to me,
.
‘dance with me mom, dance with me!’
.
and i do.
.
— what to do with words from a geneticist.
.
© Liezel Graham 2019.
.
Photograph by Porapak Apichodilok.
.
.
.
#poetry #motherhood #boymom #autism #chromosomes #genetics #words #wordsmith #poetryporn #spilledink #spilledthoughts #iweepinink #indiepoet #indiepoetry #liezelgraham #liezelgrahampoetry #livelifehappy #amwriting #life #poetrycommunity #shewrites
perhaps the hot words
that i have
. whispered
.
when i have been furthest from holiness,
.
might still make it
to where they will be heard.
.
tucked into the pocket of my coat,
. worn soft, and
.
frayed
.
from all the times that i have brought them to the edge of my faith, and
.
there are difficult things in this world,
.
impossible choices that
leave me breathless,
and reeling.
.
but still i ask for more, and
.
to be heard.
.
am i bold, or just blind
to what you say
my life
should look like
.
before i am allowed to walk into heaven,
.
my hands full of hungry words.
.
— i am too hungry to care what you think about my holiness.
.
© Liezel Graham 2019.
.
Photograph by Nur Andi Ravsanjani.
.
.
.
.
#poetry #poetryporn #woman #wordsmith #words #faith #beautyinthemundane #liezelgraham #liezelgrahampoetry #indiepoet #indiepoetry #honesty #spilledink #spilledthoughts #iweepinink #poetess #poetrycorner #poetrycommunity #potd #amwriting #pexels #nurandiravsanjani
have they come back
to haunt you
lately?
.
all the women you once were.
.
do you
. also
wake up to the way you once
walked the earth
.
. sitting darkly
on the edge of your bed,
.
whilst the world is
quietly sleeping.
.
as if there has only ever been peace underneath the night sky, and
in your bones, and
.
you know that
. that,
is not true.
.
don’t you?
.
but also,
you know better now, and
.
you leave a room differently now,
to the way that you once did,
before?
.
so gentle you are now,
. and strong,
.
with your eyes always searching for the light, but
.
look at you!
.
so fierce in your fight
to never be the
same
.
as you once-upon-a-time
were, and
.
you know so much better now, and
.
perhaps it is time
that you let them all go.
.
leave them
on the edge of the darkness, and
.
walk on, brave girl.
.
walk on.
.
— from time to time they will come back.
this is ok.
just walk on without them.
.
© Liezel Graham 2019.
.
Photograph by Lisa Fotios.
.
A little bit of encouragement for those of us who measure our lives in befores-and-afters.
.
From time to time they will come back — the ones we once were.
.
This is ok.
.
Just walk on without them, brave girl, just walk on.
.
liezel
.
.
#poetry #words #wordsmith #liezelgraham #liezelgrahampoetry #spilledink #spilledthoughts #woman #womanpoets #healing #leaveyourpastbehind #poetrycommunity #indiepoet #indiepoetry #lookhowfaryouvecome #youarebeautiful #wordswithqueens #strongwomen #lisafotios #pexels
