A cockroach crawls across the floor
Twitching this way and that,
Avoiding the movements of my shadow;
I trap him beneath a cup
And watch him spin around in circles
Trying to discover a way out
Of his prison. I stand and note in triumph
That there is no escape for him.
Where he is trapped is physical;
For me, fate is not so kind.
In my head, the glass is there, unwilling to
Move when I place my hands
Against it and push, for I have become a
Prisoner of my own thoughts
And must now retreat to a place where I
Can try to wear the glass thin.
I tower over this cockroach, mighty in
My physical presence, but no more:
He has no reason to become a sunken,
Nervous wreck despite his cage;
But me, though I once beat the discontentment
Down to a pulp, can feel it rise
Once more into the forefront of my mind
Where it threatens to remain.
As I move the glass and crush him with my foot,
I see myself crushed alongside him;
How strange that such a pest can remind me
Of my personal vulnerabilities.
Inside, I have a broken body too, which has
Crawled across the ground, in failed
Attempts to turn myself into a strong woman again.
And as he dies, in part so do I.
© Laura Marie Clark
Excerpt from the book City Of The World
$13.95 Plus Shipping ~ Available at CTU Publishing Group and Amazon.com
About the Author
Laura is a writer and blogger near Lincoln, England. She is the author of City of the World – a collection of poems that take the reader on an adventure living and working as a teacher in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to explore the highs and lows of life as an expat.
Visit Author Page At: www.ctupublishinggroup.com/laura-marie-clark.html
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Real compassion hidden in heart you revealed here dear Laura
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