Reconciliation

I'm presently trying to correct a long stretch of creative drought, and this piece was the first step in the right direction, I hope.

His brief passing

Left a residue,

Adhesive as water droplets

Whose surface tensions release,

Allowing them to trickle

Over a solid, smooth surface.

 

But I am overwhelmed

By its emotive trigger,

Absorbed by my very constitution.

Out pours its consequence:

Sweat I can’t blot,

Stinging my eyes,

Salting my lips,

No matter how often

My hands smear it across my face.

 

Plans for change

To clot his effect

Seem so futile

When my breath stinks of beer

And cigarettes.

How easily I fathomed Lady Rebirth

Only one day before.

 

She stares me down the following morning--

A whispered rebuke--

Though it summons blood to my cheeks

And steals my breath

As though I were struck.

 

She leaves me to swallow my failure alone

And feel its festering pains

In my abdomen.

I take to pen and paper,

A reminder to honor her

When faced with temptation.

 

And suddenly,

The burden unwittingly lifted

By its record.

Author's Note

Is the way I personified "rebirth" too literal? Too obvious?