lynn ciesielski

 

 

Richardson Complex, Buffalo Psychiatric Center


you sleep naked on snow banks
desert dunes at night
dream long pauses

your jagged thoughts do not match
master turns you to mosaic
feelings provide mortar
mind becomes motley stone wall
you are beautiful like Gothic art
but stand stoic

the patina on your rooftops dyes them Easter colors
you too wish to rise from this death
that boxes you in

but now you remain lost
in a metaphorical maze
try to climb the stone barefoot
these tunnels are vertical
they trap you

life trains us all on a forward path
we never learn to climb
it's a long way to heaven
your castle encumbers

you peer through windows
but someone has barred them
they screen out butterflies and bats
intruders enter from inside

until we reach out to rescue you

(Previously published in Transparent Words and Buffalo News)



Lynn Ciesielski taught in city schools for over eighteen years and worked with disabled adults in group homes for five more. Currently, she is retired and puts most of her energy into her poetry. Her work has been published or is upcoming
in Iodine, Wild Goose Poetry Review, Blue Collar Review, Transparent Words and Buffalo News.


 

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take me home