Josette Akresh
In Limbo

If you happen to understand pain you
would know that mine is overwhelming,
If you can imagine a volcano erupting
that is my heart overflowing

And inside, deep and hidden beneath rock
underground, unimaginable is the force it holds
As it trembles, liquefied beneath the surface,
cracks because of your voice

Swelling like a child, a lingering rage, hot
as lava molten and simmering and almost
Ready to explored. With my mouth shut though
it will continue to boil there, my swelling

Need for you, your sweetness like nectar filling and
coating a mouth opened wide with hunger,
A newborn almost, I am caught between the safe world
of placenta and the unfamiliar rush of

Breath I could take in a moment,
if I would just open my mouth and
Say something, then the blood of repressive searing
melted stone might not kill me;

But you could never hold me that way again,
I probably wouldn't let you,
And in my center boils this rage,
frothing within me and never expressed.

Closing

There are holes in me
Where liquid seeps through,
Flooding thick beneath the surface of my skin,
Silky to your touch,
Washing
over your palms like kisses.

There, that is the spot where it hurts;
A cut deep from years ago,
An ocean of memories gushes out
When you press it.

And yet the smoothness soothes like slumber,
A comfort,
Letting your hand off and
Letting the tears soak through, and
Finally the letting ebbs.

The pressure and the relief,
The leaking, a tide, and
Your hands moving over me,
clay over cracks,
cleansing, closing.

Stepping Forward

Each step takes me from your eyes;
my imagination reminds me of a clear lime green,
blending all the rest.

Never truth, only what I want to see,
only what I think to remember.

What was mediocre seems fantastic,
since in passion lies danger.
Your body was "I love you,"
my response, "forever."

But now, I move on,
and the fantasy fades.
Stepping to taste the air in front of me,
I know
it is only the same air I have left behind.

Back to Issue 1, 1999