Petals fall

Petals fall
Landing softly on the ground
Birds call
Pecking vigorously at an ant mound,

As I watch silently,
Through a hole in the wall
No one can hear my wordless plea
To be free and out where the petals fall

These four walls are crushing me,
All emotions have left my soul
Everything hurts and I can't breathe
As I pay the price for the life I stole.

I wait motionlessly for my meal
of water and bread,
As I dream of skies of teal,
And my heart sinks deeper as if it's made of lead.

I cannot remember feeling love nor hate,
Just a feeling of numbness which lasts forever
My aim is to leave this place before its too late,
And repeat in my head never say never.

My mind travels back to my childhood,
To my father who was never there
Who never gave me the things he promised he would
I blame the drugs for making him not care.

My mother raised me on her own
If it wasn't for her I would have ended up like the man I hated the most,
When money was scarce she would just smile and say “I'll get a loan”,
She didn't think I noticed the bruises and how she now resembled a ghost.

I think about my former wife
Her gold hair glowing in the sun,
I gave her all I could in life,
Then she said our marriage was done.

Betrayal filled my eyes,
My hands shook
My heart shattered for the last time
Those words was all it took

I grabbed my knife from the kitchen bench
And plunged it into her heart
Blood seeped from her body and had begun to stench
As red as the filling in her favourite raspberry tart

So that is how I ended up here,
In the cell that has now become my home,
After being in this place so many years
I've adopted it as my own.
But now a guard has come to the door,
My heart pounds
He says “You are now free to go”
And I leave without a sound.

Petals fall
Landing softly on the ground
Birds call
Pecking vigorously at an ant mound

As I watch silently
Standing tall,
Watching the scene with glee
As finally I am out where the petals fall

Anishka Perera
Seymour Australia

Yin Yang

In darkness light creeps
Life's mission greeting death
Like good bad pretty ugly
Grey covers rain clouds
With drops that fall
Feed parched soil
Make oasis green
Make children play
Send boats in drains
In falling rain
For then
Wind will blow
Sun will shine
Life.... with
All its joys all
Those falls
Must go on.

- Renton de Alwis