Tag: poem

giving over

©2023 michael raven

giving over, relinquishing control
is not something that comes easy
but i never had it anyway...

surrender & slumber, inviting
solutions without conditions
letting carrion, hunters &

four winds tear me asunder
until only my bones remain
with bits of skin flapping in

the wind

secret slip

©2023 michael raven

a murder overhead
calling my name
my-cah, my-cah
waving, i say
oh, hai,
what's up friends?

my daughter utters
a nervous chuckle:
am i earnest or
pulling her leg?

i should probably
have old man
muttered instead
Photo by Frank Cone on Pexels.com

five of bows [wildwood]

©2023 michael raven

as cerne bends the bow
so do i, my focus
drawn taut before
release

agency
i stab northward
flint & alder piercing
shadowed veils
writhing mists
a hunter stalking
stone

The deck used for this tarot-based writing prompt is the nonstandard Wildwood deck, which may have different interpretations of the cards than those found in the more common Rider-Waite deck.

last ghast

©2023 michael raven

drifting through
i am a ghost slipping
tripping through my
haunts, hands piercing
my incorporate mist
last ghast roaming
while watching all
the people flowing by
wondering how i
have fallen away
uncertainty tugs
and i ponder if
i want to be
brought
back

show me bone

©2023 michael raven

cardboard cutout
everyday shadow play
i wish to burn it down
scrims and shorn

cut the masquerade
and see if there is
real under all the façade,
or is it just steel?

bone, show me bone
hearts going thrum thrum
and sinew stretched
taut out of love

don't speak to me of things:
pour your heart
into a wineglass
spiced with thorn & tears
& share it with me
Photo by The Earthy Jay on Pexels.com

XI justice

©2023 michael raven

truth internal
a truce within
all shades grey
surrender to
shadow & sun
beheading medusa
with eyes in ice
& mirrors turned
stone, alone & 
waiting in the
last of winter cold

truth internal
carving cruel lies
whispered in
the nadir night
rejecting dagger
drawn spite
spilling lifeblood
on desert sands
that drink dry
poison from self-
inflicted wounds

here is the truth
borne like bone
in waiting for
grass to grow

ghostly encounters

©2023 michael raven

ghost, i say,
that was a sneaky
trick you played a
few days ago i
think your know

ghost says nothing
but his cheshire
smile fades in
before melting away

what did you mean
by rubbing against
my shin while i
whiled away the
hours working?

still that madcap grin
which fades away and
stays away the remainder
of the day toiling at
my desk this day