Category: First Drafts

Among the Violets

FJ Vera

Here on the ground I stand

The place where my eternity lies

Picturesque, the trees and meadow flowers all throughout 

A perfect place to die

I chose its isolation

I find solace in its silence 

My future hidden tomb

Lost among the violets

I only lived

Under different shades of fear 

No friend to be made

Shying from a world so drear

Playing masquerade 

I can only imagine a future when you stand here too

Contemplate the lives beneath the other stones

With names, dates, caring words

And wonder about this unknowns’

Born and died a nobody

Unloved in life, unmourned in death

The poet

FJ Vera

In a glance — the poet’s mind —

A reflection gazes back

From a frame

Its edges hidden under years of dust

A grim mouth

Tender eyes

A mind of wonder

A mind of answers

Who is this poet

Who claimed to speak sweet words?

To hold the visions of past and future

Immortalized within that silent recollection of an organism gone…

In a glance — the poet’s eyes —

Rage

Click, click, thump, click, thump, thump

This word is not new

This poem is a whisper of years ago

Originality is fake news.

A Mother’s Pain

FJ Vera

There sits a picture

Upon a simple glass table

Between a pale chair

And open door

A boy smiles at me

Only two front teeth

Chocolate mouth

Onyx eyes

His innocence does not hide

Nor is it feigned

With time comes the tide

Of changes brought by a heart pained

— by eyes opened and sins made —

Knowledge brings despair

His hopes fade

Now that life is a nightmare

I tried to bring the sun to him

I tried to make him bright again

His star was dim

But I believed

The light would be found

Am I deceived?

Are nights still long?

Is hope still far?

Is death still near?

How you’ve grown is all a blur

Yet, still, I ache for the boy you were

Chance and Choice

FJ Vera

It’s better this way

– apart –

Two souls thrown together by chance

Kept divided by choice

I can’t keep you

You will never know

How I struggle

As I let you go

The gentleness of your eyes fades in the distance

I forget so much

Yet you stay

You consumed me

You owned me

– and for that –

We could never be