Saturday 26 October 2019


On Reflection 

by Mary McCarthy

  
After a lifetime 
Your story broke too close 
Blowing my foundation 
Opening the earth  
Calling up the dead 
To walk again 
Dragging their sins back 
Into the open air 
Until each necessary breath 
Invites corruption 
And I taste your secret 
Like some foul communion 
I must swallow whole 
Or choke 
  
It will be as hard to forgive you 
As to rebuild these walls 
And drive the dead back down 
Too hard to forget your voice 
Telling my story 
As if it were your own 
  

* * * * *

Mary McCarthy has always been a writer but spent most of her working life as a Registered Nurse. Her work has appeared in many print and online journals, including Third Wednesday, Earth's Daughters, the Ekphrastic Review, and Verse Virtual. Her electronic chapbook, Things I Was Told Not to Think About, is available as a free download from Praxis magazine.

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