Eric Ashford Poet Free verse

To Find Starlight Dig In Mud

when he spoke
words broke like glass between his teeth
14 minutes past 8PM 7 weeks after the red river
in his brain ran almost dry
he the acidic and sullen shadow of his youth
turned to me
(one side of his face a landslide of flesh
frozen into freefall 
thus i won't mimic the inarticulate sound of it)


look after your mother


and my ten year old self nodding
wishing i were not there

then she who had married this man to protect her
plus one boychild from a condemning Catholic family
and a rabid priesthood
having thus become a widow at 37
being only 5 feet high in her pumps
also as slim as a whippet 

turned to drink dying quickly of a gastric ulcer
never mind her failing liver
no wonder

i turned out more angular then an open razor
biting every hand that fed body and mind
thinking that same hand would one day turn against me
as it usually did
but i unable to stop my breakneck race to personal destruction

until poetry found me wandering a bitter earth
it entering my soul one turbulent night wailing like
a hungry infant which i fed and carried for years
not knowing i needed it much more than it needed me
and so

we ate broken glass together until

words bled into red flowers floating upon a river
that flowed through my brain

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Elizabeth Mccann September 24, 2022 at 4:10 PM My words feel inadequate to respond to this startling excavation of layers of memory and feeling. An extraordinary poem. I shall keep it, of course. Elizabeth Eric Ashford September 24, 2022 at 4:59 PM Thanks for this warm and positive review of this work Elizabeth, much respect and appreciation.

Vickey Rhymer September 22, 2022 at 1:43 AM A form of therapy and personal growth available to any equipped to transcribe.Did not realize this fully till your write. Thanks.Just went back and reread this masterpiece.love it Eric . Eric Ashford September 22, 2022 at 12:11 PM Hi Vicky, well it took a long period of personal growth to get to this write. I am not usually a person prone to opening up in this raw way, but the poem evolved so to speak, and had to come to the surface and the light of day. Most pleased that this worked for you and thanks again for such a positive response.

Jeff Kyser September 21, 2022 at 4:15 PM Powerful stuff. Writing has been catharsis for me, but not for nearly so long. And I had to work out damage I inflicted. But I don’t think I know a better way. Thanks for sharing. Eric Ashford September 22, 2022 at 12:13 PM Thanks Jeff, yes it's a raw wound but all mostly healed now. I could only write about this at the latter of this life experience, thankfully the past can now bury the past! Thanks again. Best JD