Snowflower

This love, it blossomed
as a flower in the
winter cold -
entombed in ice and snow
yet burrowing up
into the warmth
of your sunlit smile.

© Eleanor Clark
25 February, 2016

Change

Look -
one more time
in the mirror.
Tomorrow
will be different,
other, completely
not the same.
Nervous.
Terrified.
Stepping into
the river,
flowing swiftly
forward to
a future I
cannot tell.
Breathe in.
Breathe out.
The coming
dawn will
be alight
with fiery
flame.

© Eleanor Clark
18 February, 2016

A Smile

a smile is what
it took -
and joy welled
up and danced
with laughter
in my heart.

Your face,
it wrinkles in
the lines I
love to trace
to the dimple
on your cheek

and run my
fingers down
your neck.
And gaze a
million years
into your eyes

and drown for
a moment there,
your smile and
laughter sparkling,
washing away
the day's sadness.

They say that
love is madness,
but all I feel is
joy, and -
longing for your
coming home

to hold me -
close
your warm
embrace -
and to whisper,
I love you.

© Eleanor Clark
2 February, 2016

I Have Felt Hell

I have felt hell
while rocking
in pain - tears
streaming down
my face while
I choke on my
toothbrush,
laughing at the
absurdity of this
complete lack
of hope as my
body betrays me -
breath by breath
and moment by
moment.

I have felt hell
in the sleepless
nights when unsure
if dreams came
or if it was all
one blur of
unrest and wakeful
watching through
the inky black
of tortured night.

Hell they say
is a place for the
damned.
Hell can also be
here and now
on earth, where
hope flees in
ghostly white
against the coming
of the dawn.

© Eleanor Clark
9 October, 2015