by Carmen Mason
I …….we are
………arsonists
………born for conflagration
………kindlebones coalhearts
………distilling all to ashes
………ashes ashes
………embersouls cinderhearts
………stopped caught
………tempered by the dew
II…….taking hold of light
………anyway we can
……....taking hold of emptiness
………neediness
………nastiness
………the thing not there
………the link not linking
………the egg in the mind unhatched
………the dream undreaming
………we start
………we start
III….. the soul’s commotion
………the heart unleashed
………after soaking up
………so many fabrications
………to start again
………again
………wet wombstroked
………the heart
………the soul of the matter
IV …..oh, would that the
………face of the world
………had been born
………with a caul
………unveiled by the
………hands of the dew
………not by the hand
………of our longing
………but the pure, gentle hands
………of the dew
Carmen Mason has been writing poetry and prose throughout her life and has won a few prizes (including Seventeen Magazine’s International first prize short story contest when she was seventeen) and a few other poetry prizes in her senior years. She is, therefore she writes.