Monday 15 April 2019


Sculptures

by Francesca West


I went home to visit family
A garden of stone sculptures
Visions from Greek mythology
Versions of a personal hell

I talked to my mother
Eyes gray and dull
Hunched over sadness
Giving up

I touched the stress lines
and glided my hands
along grooves of smooth stone

I can’t relax the anger
or give fluidity to the stiffness.
This family hardens me
to feel lost and without

Engravings of attitudes
stretched across the bottom
to remind me
life’s choices define us

I’ll never visit home again
or see you with light in your eyes
I’ll touch the pain
and internalize my loss

Look where I’m growing hard inside
Define what this stone’s made of
Who I am, and what I represent,
from within where my soul resides


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"Sculptures" was first published in Silver City Quarterly Review 2018 Anthology. 

1 comment:

  1. The effect of this morphing of flesh and stone is devastating, while the centered lines bring a sense of order to the spray of emotions.

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