Perfection

My blanket’s made of fire
And my fireplace of tears.
This is the place I can be lonely
Close my eyes, and shut out fear.
This house was built out of regrets
Brick on brick of hopeless hopes,
Mortar made of visions past
That in vain I’ve tried to grope.
My chair is woven from the threads
Of love that once I had to keep.
It has worn thin and nearly bare;
Now patches cover, made of sleep.
My chimney blows out, now and then,
A signal of half-hearted howls.
It drifts on, aimless, through the air
Never crossing human brows.
No fence have I, only the woods
Miles thick, grown from neglect
No one comes in, nothing goes out
Practiced withdrawal makes perfect.

- Samantha Steves

(featured in the poetry forum 04.20.11)

Swallows

Let us be swallows.
Let us fly the uncharted skies.
The things I wished for are gone now;
All that is left is to fly.
Gone are my days of running and running
And going no place at all.
Gone are my days of largeness,
Let me be small!
Release me from this cage
To the wild unknown
Before my will weakens with age
And the resignation it brings.
Take my maturity, give me wings!
We will stop for nothing
And I will stop at nothing
To find us our wings.
We may fly together,
Or you go South and I go North
Whoever to their proper course,
It matters not.
For we must be free, oh rock.
Though you are hard and God is gracious
We must be swallows.
We must be free.

- Samantha Steves

(featured in the poetry forum 02.04.11)

Martyrdom

How quickly does the flower wilt and die,
And even quicker how her colors fade.
Her petals that were once raised to the sky
Have fallen off, head bowed as if to pray.
Plucked from her home, her roots are all but dry
Now she drinks her water from a jar
For now, of course, the shallows will suffice,
But stolen water only goes so far.
The poor dead flow’r, no longer on display
Is hidden, pressed upon a holy page.
In darkness and in silence now she prays
To be set free from this forgotten place.
What would she do though, if she were to go?
The darkness has become her only home.

- Samantha Steves

(featured in the poetry forum 09.08.10)