Wire Walker
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October 22, 2020
Published in: PS: It's Poetry: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry from Around the World – November 27, 2020
~ Eighth Place ~
Premiere Contest: Premiere V - Open
Sponsor: Rob Carmack
~ Third Place ~
Premiere Contest: 2022 Poetry Marathon - Mile 12
Sponsor: Mark Toney
*Wire Walker (composed June 14, 2020 and posted to PoetrySoup on October 22, 2020) was the initial exploration of the themes of infidelity and love triangles. It was the prelude to Wander-Lust (composed July 18, 2020 and posted to PoetrySoup September 23, 2020). The final companion piece; A Kept Woman (composed August 5, 2020 and posted to PoetrySoup on July 16, 2022) concludes this poetic series.*
There’s the tightrope for you to walk, wire walker —
defying the gravity of reality and the reality of gravity
you know damn well he won't catch you when you fall
as your sticky grip on the star’s razor edge slips
back away from the black back-alley -
use the street’s angles and curves to your advantage
run! from the rouse of his lure
as the lore is as sordid as it is euphoric -
ruined as you are by the ruse of his rune
fade to disappearance with distance
ride the rift of spindrift; a smoke screen
as if you were never here
but the territorial she-wolf knows…
she dreams of pouring rain pooling on a blurry beach
though she may choose not to open sand-puddled eyes
intuition is not blind and instincts are hackled —
for she’s downwind of dual deception
and her elegant nose is one with the yellow-rose winds
her howls now haunt your hurricane
passion’s kite - once blissfully lost in windy swagger
brash in its stellar flash amidst a hazy starlit pinwheel -
has returned a stormy petrel
dark and hovering over self-inflicted wounds feeding on strife —
incised by the rapier side-eye of your conscience
you seek to stem the red flow of guilt washing up in waves
knowing you can’t dye scarlet heartbeats white
there’s the tightrope for you to walk, wire walker;
the bloodline — that which binds
a sinful sister’s envies to the sinless sister
and divides loaves of husband-lies for the bronze bloodless sinner.
Copyright © Susan Ashley | Year Posted 2020
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