Waiting For the Thawing of An Afterwards

Ice shrouds over the hunched houses
where blood and flesh huddle and wait.

An ice ravaged 
face rears up from an invisible earth
its fangs blackened by a tooth-aching light,
more flesh piercing incisors
dagger down from the clamped
and sunken roofs.

What wreckage there is, is buried
hidden from sight, but it is not
a clean landscape. Not a landscape at all
but a telltale footprint,
a restructuring of destruction.

What was once seen as a town
is gone. Not forever (drama makes
actors of us all), but we talk now
in a past tense language of 'back then'
and not of any postcard view of tomorrow -
not yet.
Copyright © | Year Posted 2022

Poem

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Mccann Avatar
December 29, 2022 at 12:39 AM
The savagery of the second verse is visceral! Elizabeth
Ashford Avatar
December 29, 2022 at 10:48 AM
Thank you Elizabeth, I am pleased that the S2 worked so well for you.
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