Conversation in Silence

Mother I thought you'd see this part of me
the only one to really measure space
of all that I've become, or all I'd ever want to be.

It's unfortunate the way the music plays,
your song was over sooner than I'd hoped
and though I hear your sweet refrain inside,

my eardrum shattered twice, the day the darkness groped,
for you. But I have little left to say, about the conversations
that we've missed, I only share this suffering with myself

for all the hours left, we might have reminisced.
I hold a wing inside my throat, it flutters with the constant sound
of words and every note, I might have spoken once again, to you.

A life becomes a tethered rope, a severed thing in two.
Oh how I wish I took the scissors when I had the chance
to trim a tendril of your hair, one silver curl

to place inside my locket, dangling from a chain upon my breast
at least I'd have some real part of you to wear
around my neck until my song has stopped.

I was certain you would listen for a while longer,
Was it yesterday when you were here? I wonder Mother,
am I stronger?

Carol Lynn Grellas is a Northern California-based writer, where she attended Santa Clara University as an English and Art major. Her Chapbook: Litany of Finger Prayers will be released in 2008 from Pudding House Press. She has had dozens of poems appear in magazines and online journals, including most recently, The Oasis Ezine, The Oasis Online, Las Cruces for Poets & Writers, Munyori Poetry Journal, Words on Paper, The Pregnant Moon Review, Moondance, Dogzplot,Twilight Musings Anthology, The Verse Marauder and A Tender Touch. She has poems forthcoming in, MSU Great Falls Literary Guild: Writings from the River, The Storyteller Magazine, Ken*again, Chanterelle's Notebook, Rattlesnake Review, Kinglyblue, The New Mirage Quarterly and The Hiss Quarterly. Carol Lynn's first collection of poems, I'm Packing Things for Heaven was published in 2007. She lives with her husband, five children and a blind dog named Ginger, who inspire much of her poetry.

Email: Carol Lynn Grellas

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