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Cheryl Murray Poem
So many lights, like eyes in the night. I know they're not there, but it's a jungle in here.
The microwave stares at me, the refrigerator glares at me, the dishwasher gives me a fright.
Watching me, stalking me, the eyes follow me in the dark.
I try to sleep, but I daren’t count Sheep, fearing the beast may want to eat.
I lay in bed, hiding my head, swearing tomorrow I will cover them in black electrical tape.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
I am Alice, trapped and trying to find my way home.
The world is topsy turvy. I yearn to be back amongst comfort and safety from whence I came. Where cats are cats and rabbits cannot tell time. I long for the warm glow of my parents' hearth.
I am learning more the workings of this place and trying to act accordingly but when what was big becomes small, and one-dimensional figure heads make the calls how can I but fall, fall, fall.
I fear if I ever make it back home my family may not recognize me… I barely recognize myself.
For it is I who has changed. The house may look the same but my reaction to it will be different. My perspective indefinitely altered from my time on the other side of the looking glass.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
Between two oceans I do roam,
unsure which to call my home.
Raised on the west coast, transformed on the east: I know enjoy a lobster feast.
Two seasons: three wet one dry, or four with a summer so short I could cry.
Which do I love more I cannot say, for I love them both in their own way.
Its family and friends that really call. Dividing my time between them all.
A birthday here, a zoom call there; I can't be expected to be everywhere.
Truly, what decides, is what's in my heart and in my mind.
Through memories fond and a bond that is strong I am always at home, wherever I roam, between the two oceans I call my home.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
The eagle circles high in the air, watching a mouse just leaving its lair.
With wide sloping turns he comes ever near hoping his prey won't know that he's there.
Blinded by the sun and driven by hunger the little mouse bewildered from its winter slumber, senses no fear.
But death is there, circling, watching, it waits.
The little mouse freezes sensing its fate. Can it make it to safety before it's too late?
The eagles' eyes narrow, its talons extend, the time for waiting has come to its end.
He dives, the mouse runs: zig zagging through the grass.
The play of life plays on, who of them will win?
If not this mouse, then another for the eagle on the wind.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
Men are security, I feel that they can protect me and keep me safe: keep me grounded in what is real; or what the patriarch presents as reality.
Women represent the abyss. They cannot protect me.
I feel myself being drawn towards the edge of the unknown. I stand, palms sweating, knees shaking, heart pounding, resisting the temptation to step over; fettered by desire and fear.
To release myself of these is to open myself up to the beauty of life, to the ecstasy of existence, to the truth that humans were not meant to suffer but rejoice in the knowledge of the unknown.
cm 1991
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
The tip of my pen shines with the brightness of potential.
Glints of hope and promise.
Subtle and small.
My fingers caress its surface, the coolness grounds me.
Hope transforms into action.
I put pen to paper and begin.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
I and you, us and them, from one soul we grow independently.
United but apart, alone but together, I am you, and you are me.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
What would the moon do if it were not caught irrevocably in your orbit?
Resigned to exist ever in your periphery, circling and supporting yet unable to touch.
If it were not both illuminated by your light, and obliterated by it?
What would the moon do if it could break free from your grasp and go off carving its own path?
It’s influence gone you would be lost; yet its love goes unrequited.
What would the moon do?
Stay forever forlorn or let you wobble and fall while it made like a star shooting off to some new place.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
You lay sleeping, and I, awake, focus on you’re steady breathing in hopes it will lull me into at very least a meditative trance, if not actual sleep.
I stare into the blackness of the room, it’s expansiveness surprises me, intrigues me, then scares me, so I close my eyes blocking out the night. Rolling over I huddle into a ball and try to sleep. The electric hum of the household appliances fill the void, your occasional snores and snorts intersperse their melody. You lay sleeping, and I? I lay still resisting the urge to get up as I believe if I just lay still sleep will come, eventually.
You roll over and cuddle me. You lay sleeping, and I lay awake but happy wrapped in your arms, your knees snug up behind mine. I feel the rhythmic rise and fall of your chest and try to mirror it.
Slowly surly my eyes get heavy, the thoughts dissipate from my mind and I feel the heaviness of sleep being to over take me. BING, my phone intones from the living room. At first I ignore it, too tired and cozy to care, then I begin to wonder who it could be, and why. I have to know, and besides I’m thirsty, and I could pee.
You roll over, and I get up. You lay sleeping and I scroll mindless through my phone, the bright light making me squint so I put it aside.
“You ok”, I hear from the bedroom. “Yup”, I reply.
You instantly fall back into your easy slumber. I sit there in the darkness tired but awake.
I wish I could be you for just one night, sleeping so peacefully and easily.
How do you do it? Why can’t I?
You lay sleeping ….
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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Cheryl Murray Poem
I sink into the mossy coolness underneath the large willow tree. The shade the tree provides is a stark contrast to the summer heat just a few feet away. It’s noon and I’m on my lunch break. Works been crazy. But here, just around the block from my office, I found this tree about a week ago. It’s off the sidewalk just on the edge of a gentle slope leading down to a creek below. It seemed so out of place. A little oasis amidst the noise and haste of the city. I’ve come here for lunch every day since. I leave my desk, nod to my co-worker and head out the door. We used to eat lunch together quite often she and I. I’m sure she thinks I’m mad at her for some reason, or am having an affair, which I suppose I am in a way. I’m just not ready to share. This is our time: the tree’s and mine. I lie in the shade enveloped in its coolness. The branches gentle sway fan and smooth me. The sound from the brook trickles up to my ears and drowns out the roar of the city around me. We stay like this the tree and me, suspended in time and space, until it’s time for me to go. Reluctantly returning to earth, I open my eyes, gather my thoughts and then just as I’m leaving, I lay my hand on the trunk of the tree, feeling the cool roughness of its bark on my palm. I say a silent thank you, then walk back into the world.
Copyright © Cheryl Murray | Year Posted 2024
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