Iron Prayer

Bent knees in iron prayer,

I am in hell’s merry-go-round

that spins but never stops.

My hands that once held you

cling to prison bars wishing

the moon wasn’t stained with rust.

Sorrow raises its bitter fist

to strike my heart with loneliness.

Days pass, but I have lost the ability to count.

Each moment rides the darkness

of the one before trying to blind me.

My sanity hangs upon your name.

Regret wishes to cinch my neck,

but I reject its noose to walk

the other side of Eden.

I care not what others speak of me.

What I have done and what has been done to me

pour into my spirit to be absorbed and resurrected in peace.

Words have been my vehicle, but I tire

of the articulate sentences of men.

Nature is the mystic I now listen to.

I feel you leaving my spirit, my love.

Clinging to love time has divided

has broken our bond and I must release you.

Once I leave these prison walls society

will have no place for me at its table of rules,

but nature will wash me clean and hide me in her bosom.

My stumbling footprints of pain will succumb

to the wind and there will be no trail to follow.

I will weep under the stars until I am whole again.

  

©Susie Clevenger 2013

My poem was inspired by Oscar Wilde's De Profundis

You can find Marian Kent's poetic prompt at Real Toads ~ Freedom for Love