Cycle Poem by Carolyn Brunelle

Some keep their
pain well hidden in
a blockage of emotion
that breeds contempt
and feeds upon itself
when not addressed.

Denial looks away
with nothing to say;
but the heart
in a crush
of feelings unspoken,
bleeds and gushes.
It never stops aching
and there’s no mistaking
the steeled exterior,
cold as any cell
a self made hell
with wounds left
to fester in the dark.

Soon its foulness leaks
on an unsuspecting world;
sickening and destroying
innocent lives around it.
The walking wounded
soon become emotional cripples;
creators of tomorrow’s wounded.

And so begins a cycle.