Torn and Tattered Wings

Torn and Tattered Wings

It’s not easy to have seen
All the darkness inside you
Places I have been
Sorrow and degrading
Thrusting their blades epithetize 
Hard into your heart

I look in your eyes
See the padded cells of your tears
Their blackwash lays cringing
Dogging your footsteps
With their fears

Nights unending betrayal
Of innocence used
The child in you defiled
Your love just savaged into rags

No it’s not easy to see
Through the tattered grey flags 
Tormented a vicious storm
Fingers of icicle claw born
Would want to rip out the heart of you

Hidden beneath saddening locks
Shuttered rooms dug to pits so forlorn
Buried your sweet beauty
In a shell of nothing to be loved

No one can see
Where the un-healing tracks lead
Where your whipped lashed back still bleeds
From those who simply couldn’t care less

An Innocent lost
Violated by the perverse
Life line cut
Broken by silence
Shoved into the corners
Where playful eyes
Just wanted to end in forgetful dreams

No it’s not easy to have seen
All the pillory deepen inside you
Places I have been
With all the Pain and the indifference
Battering back the resplendence
Born into your heart

And for the rebuke of a guilty world 
You took on all the blaming 
For having been raped by life
And all the mistrust
All of the desperate need
Left you standing alone
Just needing to be loved

The beacon of your light
Standing alone on a hill top of strength
In a steadfast bravery
You shine it out 
For all the world to see

The courage to rise up and fight
Fight against the ignorance
Is how your plight reaches out
In such a gentle face of tenderness
With compassions arms

Your glory is a star
Brighter than many by far
Fought from the disenchanted heart
With all the sacrifice in your soul

And if I knew how 
How to tell you
Of the respect you endear
Engendered by your miracle
Your will not to fall
Fall into the abysm of hates purposeless

I have known
And I have been shown
The fierce and burgeoning light
Living behind Angel wings
Lifting up your presence 
Exulting your loves triumph over the sufferings

Instead you soar 
Even though your fracture remains
Though encumbered by chains
Still you rise up and fly
As high as you can

On those torn and tattered wings
 


(  Inspired by “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol 
and written for a dear and beautiful friend  )
Copyright © | Year Posted 2009

Poem

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Winter Avatar
January 19, 2009 at 5:46 AM
Wow. Blown away here by this amazing tribute to a friend. Hope they will read this. I know too many who have 'torn and tattered wings' and who have by miracle risen above and beyond. Powerful and uplifting words as you see deeply into the wounded soul of another. Your heart pours out in each line. Truly exceptional. Love, Shar
Reynolds Avatar
January 18, 2009 at 2:51 AM
This hit me very close to home, colin, I have been there, and will carry the scars for all of time. no child should ever have to closetheir eyes and pretent they are somewhere else while having their innocence stolen. man, such a powerful poem that I lived/still live through. amazing, love, Kristin
Ginn Avatar
January 17, 2009 at 10:00 AM
Buried your sweet beauty In a shell of nothing to be loved. I was unable to breathe the whole time I was reading this. It evokes so much feeling I am unable to put it into words Colin. Your writing on this is no less than remarkable. Laurie
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