by Vikki C.
A stone is thrown at the stained variety,
and we are triggered—even the non-believers.
I’ve been raised outside, looking in—unseen.
But I dare not lean too close,
because I already feel guilty without touch—
hold my sway in a blue wind which might destroy the view.
Naturally, there’s water in sight too, a large, cool body of it—
grey satin just out of reach for me to pull over as a disguise.
Because I never recognise my reflection in you
as any particular woman, feral is always closer than home.
An untamed gaze held where the stars should be.
Some argue it’s talismanic or anecdotal
—why we believe in the invisible.
Your holy colours penetrating me without declaration.
I look through your violence, trying to recover the stone,
your side of the story humming with old legends.
Of course the bodies are underreported.
But a land, like a woman, has its day for independence.
A sash of maples around my neck, already in sweet decay.
A reshaping of shadow, so we may be named, instead of orphaned.
I try not to romanticise it. Even when walking through Saint–Chartres,
a foreigner trusting the guide knows the way—
the crowd equally lost between gothic and future.
By twilight, we are lovers from opposing nations,
and there’s so much that cannot be shared over liquor and candlelight.
Static has its anthem and somehow, faith finds its way
—because the ruin exists.
It doesn’t matter which came first.
When doors are closed, someone breaks the most beautiful parts to enter
—thinking heaven is waiting alone for them.
Vikki C. is a ‘Best of the Net’ award-nominated writer, musician and author of THE ART OF GLASS HOUSES (Alien Buddha Press) and WHERE SANDS RUN FINEST (DarkWinter Press). Vikki’s poetry and fiction are published/forthcoming in venues such as Psaltery & Lyre, The Inflectionist Review, EcoTheo Review, ONE ART Poetry, Stone Circle Review, Ballast Journal, Dust Poetry Magazine, Boats Against The Current, Ice Floe Press, Black Bough Poetry, DarkWinter Lit, The Belfast Review, Acropolis Journal and various others. Twitter: @VWC_Writes Linktree: https://linktr.ee/vikki_c._author
Emerge Literary Journal 