"A Sense of Self"

 

X  

Boldly marks through the problem 

An expression of your autonomy 

You decide which Life complication you’ll solve  

or delete  

or deny  

Your independence gets erased   

Because questions can’t be skipped  

You spin out of control   

Terror and tantrums entwined  

As you scream and run and hide—  

Even from yourself  

 

Copyright 2015 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman

 

 

“Cliff’s Edge”

 

 

Defiant waves pummel and kick    

striking against soaring towers    

Mists and cold spray leave the edge slick    

siphoning my waning powers     

I stand alone on the cliff’s edge    

collapsing within my despair    

I crawl cautiously to the ledge     

where brutal winds whip at my cares     

My fingers bleed with razor cuts    

sliced by the terrors that grip me     

I desperately grasp at the ruts    

carved by the sea’s eternity    

I lay prone on the jagged ground            

in submissive subjugation        

My chest constricts as I look down            

at Death’s beckoning temptation  

 

September 28, 2011      

Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Abrams Chapman