Retrospect

This poem was originally published for Shippensburg University's The Reflector in 2018.

Her yawns sound like freight trains but

Still she's awake

And the hurricanes she rides will take

Her to the grave

Her demons, they stay alive, but

Only for her sake

Because the path to her future - only sins

The way could pave

The spell to save her soul made

The soil beneath quake

Today she guards the dreams who are

Sewn into the wave

Deep breaths saved by spirits so

Tomorrow they could take

With her sorrowed sodden secrets etched

Among the crystal cave

Beyond the ghosts she borrowed

Buried in the lake

Despite the lives she carried and

Desperately tried to save

In retrospect, tomorrow curled

Around the root mandrake

And tonight her anchors demonstrate -

to now - she is a slave