VACANCY #poetry by jay

Built block by block
a vacancy
windowless and piercing
straight through my soul
a shiver delivered 
to the tip of my bone

In wind and whispering
dark, they settle, they come
cauterized relations warehoused
growing old

The base of your knuckle 
fused, abandoned long ago
the hand that fed you, crippled
and stoned

Sacred sites, sacred burials 
blessed to wield the weight 
gone by the East, gone by the West
relations severed to heed, to warn
to love lost, in land lost
locked down scorned

You stand silent to block out the sun
rolling inward, frigid, you mourn
the cold heart frozen, a fortress built 
in regret. I taste your bitter bite on
my tongue, my lips speak in languages
unsung

And, now you stand alone, you
cinder block by cinder block
a vacant piercing monument 
of cement and stone.


 

©Jay Mora-Shihadeh

Photo by Eliane Zimmermann on Unsplash

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