POETRY

Bone and Sinew

Free Verse poem

Photo by Joshua Fuller on Unsplash

These years
with you
have leeched
lifeblood
and root —
you’ve sucked
me
dry

I walk these halls
rattling, rattling
a mere guise
of my former self:
where the huntress
the gifted
the forager
of independence?

little by little
you ate away at me
stripping away
pith and marrow —
my backbone ceased
to hold me upright
to support my head
tilted to the sun

your ideals
became my ideals
by virtue of association —
to say I envisioned a different world
set off a series of tirades
no one questioned you!

I gave and gave and gave
’til I was bone and sinew