MATURITY

You say I have matured,

Well, maybe...

But-

Ripened by Experience,

Weathered by Age,

Tempered by Time,

Or beaten by Life?

INTO THE LIGHT

She was worse than dead,

Or so they told her.

Defiled, impure, plundered...

Worse than dead.

Her life was now torn into

before and after:

Before-

she had coffee with her colleagues,

baked brownies with her niece,

wore his favourite colours.

After-

she drank sympathy at tea breaks,

bored her niece with her silence,

wouldn't meet his eyes.

Worse than dead.

Should I just kill myself

to make it better, she wondered,

Standing at the brink of the cliff,

the wind yowling in her ears,

the cold scalding her skin.

Maybe then the ice would thaw

and the birds would sing....

Deep in thought, she slipped

into a dreamless slumber,

The razor in her hand.