RIVER
Content Warning; Suicide
Do you ever want to jump off a bridge into a river?
Yearning for a brief moment of relief.
You watch from the height.
Look over the currents,
The sun shimmers
Dances on the reflective pool.
You envision your body leaping.
Flying– breaking through the air,
Wind in your hair.
Your slow-motion self inches toward the depths
Below,
That in-between state of emptiness,
Abyss. Silence from the world.
You look down,
Freefall.
Autumn-colored trees create an abstract painting.
Ripples smear the colors in delicate movements.
Your shadow appears casting darkness on the vivid watercolor.
Your body dives,
The peace ceases.
Spiral descends
Gravity claws back,
Its hands, around your neck.
Crash into the water,
You’d think you’d make a splash.
But as you collide,
Light glistens– your reflection.
Cold shock bites.
Waves swallow you,
No, they hug you.
DREAM’S DEATH
Sometimes when Dream dies
Their ashes don’t just fade off into the wind,
An ancient ceremonial death.
Sometimes it’s a gruesome bloody end.
A form of self-defense,
To rid the thing that blocks the path.
To kill Dream
is not an easy feat.
One must first plant the seed
in one’s mind.
Nurture them.
Set goals for them.
Eventually
learn to love them
But then,
There comes a time
When Dream decides to
become a parasite.
Gnawing at the insides.
At times,
Tension between the
creator and their design.
Dream becomes
too juvenile.
Immature.
Annoying shrieks and shouts.
Then again,
Dream buzzes and swarms in the ear.
Patience wears thin,
As the hand lifts for the next swat.
Sometimes,
Dream decides
to turn the knife to
their maker.
Cries.
Screams.
Wails.
Dream
You loved so dearly is
The evil.
Betrayal.
The creator fights back,
Red stains on their hands
But finally,
comes to terms with
their end.
Dusted
in the breeze or
Murdered
unmasking the one
true foe.
LIFE CYCLE
From darkness to light,
Joy and laughter gallop
like waves,
Cries bellow,
‘I’ll be all right.’
Play and swing my mind fills
with dreams.
Shade approaches,
Pressure compresses,
Suffocates me,
until my last breath.
Tears flood like a violent river
Stream and flood my ears.
Oh, Look!
A child of mine.
My life is not my own.
From this day forth, it sucks
my essence dry until
I am no more.
What happened
to my mind?
Strangling me with its vine.
Scratching me, I am torn.
Clawing me, pieces on the floor.
Sacrificing each shard, but I keep saying,
“I’m fine.”
From Darkness
to light.
Beginning at childbirth,
Ending with my body underground
feeding the Earth.
For the worm’s delight.
Like it once
fed me.
Into the bellies
Of destiny.
Audrey Morales is a poet and writer from Virginia. Her work has been published in Volition Literary Magazine. She contributed research to The Washington Post. When she is not writing poetry, she reads fantasy novels, bakes bread, and plays music on her record player. Social media: Instagram: audreymorales_, Twitter: audreymorales90, and her website audreymorales.org.
