Tuesday, April 08, 2014

National Poetry Month Challenge - Day 8

Today's poetry prompt was to write either a violence poem, a peace poem or both.  I'll be honest and say that I found this a bit troubling.  I write plenty of peace poems.  I tend to steer clear of violence.  This poem is my response to being asked to write the poem.  I suppose, I could have just written a straight forward peace poem.  Instead, I wrestled with my thoughts a bit.


Your Body Hears What You Are Thinking

There is no light in your cup.
You kick the stone down the road,
following its arc –
it’s jumping dance from pavement
to puddle.

Be careful.
Your body hears
what you are thinking,
and it hurts.

Be kind to your feet –
they walked you out of that house
where the boogie man groped you.

Be kind to your hands –
they comfort fevered brows
and make bowls of spicy chili.
Everyone loves your chili.

Be kind to your eyes –
they need not see the open wound
to know it needs to heal.

Be kind to your readers –
they are looking for something
to lift them up –
to lift them out of the violence of this world –
an invisible cloak
of good.

Cristina M. R. Norcross
Copyright 2014

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