Sglèat / Slate Poem by Karen Bain


In another time & place      
when i was someone else - i        
held you. saw you for the 
last time. final journey.  
gazing out towards   
home, i watched you  
fly - across the tidal ice.
soul carried 
high. sky slate    
grey, as the ice packed 
North Sea,
roared tumbling.
pain echoing thunder.
crack. the tearing 
of my soul & all the half stitched
seams holding us together.
i stood inside days. waiting. lost 
inside the storm.
staring out. standing tied.
shore-bound, screaming
at the raw edged wound of nature.
hoping to be swallowed up,
as hearts opened & merged 
with the fossils of stones.
one moment out of time & step,
the glance away - the cruelest blow. 
my hell brain mind replaying 
last words back
to me. unsettled, mingling with the
Sea. as day rolled in & out. pain
washing over. tears flooding,
drowning me, mixing with the salt. eroding
my reflection. the me i had become,
your eyes, staring back 
from the deep, in 
hollowed scooped
out silence.




©Copyright Karen Bain 2017.All Rights Reserved.