Witness

Witness

She would be his mother, witness the agony.
Time counts down the ritual of pain, the brethren blood congeals.

Take this child from me, I can no longer bear him.
Conceived yet not committed, expel sin from my body.

Drops of sweet blood separate life.

Drink only blood of purity, surrogate child of suffering.
You are the Frankenstein flesh.

The body given form of everlasting life.

Grateful lips trembling will venerate your death.
The concept of humanity known through your tears.

I will love you and I will lose you. You were only mine to hold.



Joanne Beilby

Refugee

Refugee

Forever in her eye beholdeth she,

Far distant lands of turbulent unrest,

Known outward for its wartime constancy,

A home betrayed to militant conquest.

Forsaking sense they stayed for far too long,

She a witness forever to a madman’s sin,

An innocence transformed through pain prolonged,

Now dumb to mask the solitude within.

Still there’s nothing like the home remembered true,

Though safe, love for her country reigns supreme.

Memory seldom tells history’s scandals unsubdued,

Mental craving, familiar longing drives her dream.

Thou memory’s dreams dispersed may reach afar,

Hope holds strong the heart of the homeless wayfarer.

Joanne Beilby