Arid Ambitions

Arid Ambitions

I dreamt of you
last night
you were ancient
in your arid ambitions

still, I loved you

mercury temples
worshipping lines
mirage homeland

have you
lived that long

but never learned
to meditate
to pray without fear

so tooth'ed
digits like daggers
armed wives' tales
telling happenings
shifted into

what have I done
look what you made me do

your terrorized
ancestral memories
will claim
youth sacrifice

blood lines
sublimate in tephra

droned distance
does not make
it humane

vaselined fabrication
petroleum nightmares
greased tropes

that were never
but worse than
that

not quite like that

weep brackish rivers
as you perpetuate
atrocity and fugue
worse than

that

I grieve you
for making me do
this to your lambs

look at my tears
that track through
bloodlines

wait, that's me
that's my child
that's your child

you have grown
in limb

ferocious in vengeance
atrocious in fear

but still
I love you

I grieve
for your savage
youth that demands
blood sacrifice

for arid
ambitions

still

I love

you

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Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

Your poem reads like a battle zone, accusations shot across space, referring to history, referring to dark death and bloody.

'I grieve you
for making me do
this to your lambs

look at my tears
that track through
bloodlines

wait, that's me
that's my child
that's your child'

nothing is sacred at such a time, in any such situation. Evil kills, where and whatever its purpose.

Your words weep...

[Pryde Foltz]

Emma, you one adept poetry cipher. Huzzah:)

[andrew mitchell]

Such an eloquent write, an absolute delight to read. Definitely the wow factor Pryde. Happy Easter.

[Pryde Foltz]

Happy Easter, Andrew:) So nice to see you:)

[Einstein Noodle]

super passionate ... devastation and turmoil of feelings and thought .. i am struck by your poem, Ms. Pryde ... love my new words, tephra and trope .. you are a masterful painter dear friend .. wishing you well in this rather bleak and riotous time :(
E.

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you so much. I do hope the bleak is kept and bay and extinguished before it spreads. Let poetry reign instead:)

[Sami Khalil]

This speaks to me of the Middle East or other conflicts; two cousins fighting over arid land, unholy land, both trying to survive and be superior to the other.
I believe we should reject all extremists on both sides, find just, fair solutions like the 2 state solution based on the 1967 borders. Otherwise, all this will get worse, be out of control.
An excellent poem on the current topics happening.

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Sami. I think there are plenty of political solutions that might work but only once we rediscover who we are ... cousins, family. Everything else is misdirectio.

[Sami Khalil]

All true and well articulated. You are welcome Peyde.

[mou]

It speaks to me through the gentleness and strength of forgiveness. The repetition of 'still I love you' portrays how many ways one can be loved unconditionally. Beautiful!
- mou

[Pryde Foltz]

We are lost when love is forgotten ... that is for sure:)

[Poetic Beauty]

This reminds me of someone who’s spouse is in the military or even has been to war or some dangerous military action. They come back a different person. Vengeful for atrocities they have seen committed and feral for the things they have done themselves and now have ptsd. But still they are loved because circumstances dictate situations and changed them but inside somewhere is still that original person.

Just my take on this poem. It is how this spoke to me

[Pryde Foltz]

You were astute to pick up the war theme. Thanks for popping by and reading. Much appreciated:)
read moreYou were astute to pick up the war theme. Thanks for popping by and reading. Much appreciated:)

[Poetic Beauty]

I pay close attention to detail and wording. And typical it is more in the middle of a poem that reveals a hidden underlying theme

[Pryde Foltz]

It is amazing how poetry can reveal.

[Poetic Beauty]

Even in the abstract twisting of words and comparisons it’s there to the finding

[Pryde Foltz]

For the telling maybe:)

[Poetic Beauty]

Yes that as well