Captive

Night tastes bland on my tongue
A bitter pill I have no choice but to take
And I swallow several times
Just to get it down
But it leaves my thirst unquenched,
My hunger insatiable
Against the backdrop of darkness
Painted empty before my eyes,

And morning wakes me
Parched,
A derisive reprieve to
The bleakness of the hours
That came before it,
And I gaze upon the horizon,
Muted behind a frosty haze
That curtains my escape
From a loneliness
Growing in a forest
Full of trees


february 2009
Janet Reid