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Poetry
Here are some samples of poetry I have written. Most of these have been submitted for previous publications. I hope you enjoy!
Longing
By Sophia Fafard
Eyes are a green light
In a room black as pitch—
Telling me, showing me
It is okay to try again.
I want to try again.
But I bite my tongue so hard
It bleeds black ink
And words escape me.
I see a ghost in your shadow,
Pale-faced and longing
A reflection perhaps,
Of tormented feelings
All my own.
I would try again,
But glittering eyes
Watch from a distance.
Ireful, wounded,
We are estranged.
My longing for love
Is like a dog,
Chasing its own tail
I can’t have it.
If I do,
I’ll lose it soon.
Love is tried, true.
When I stumble into bed
Tears are streaming,
A rain of stars in the dark.
Maybe someday
We will meet again
And those glittering eyes,
With swollen pride,
Will love me and you.
*Published in Mystician 86.5*
silence of the stars
By Sophia Fafard
the sky speaks in color,
everchanging, everlasting
The moon sings in phases,
crescent, full, new, waning
the sun whispers in winter,
hiding, quiet, sleeping
the stars are silent, far away
they shine with the wisdom
of eternities
in dreams i wonder what they'd say
but they are silent, twinkling away
*Published in Figments Vol. 34*
To Wander
By Sophia Fafard
I lost myself again
In the glowing city light
The green urgency, the red rage
The sparkling stars below,
No fields of glistening snow
I search beyond the cloudy sky
For rivers, forests, lakes; I cry
For the beauty I have left behind
I wish to wander in wild nature
Return to the woods and be content
To sing under willows in fading twilight
To sleep under stars and dream tonight
To wonder in awe at the glory of it,
To wander as a child once did, I wish
To wander
*Published in Figments Vol. 33*
Navigating the Dinner Table
By Sophia Fafard
Sitting down at the table, waiting for food
Everyone is asking, “how’s school?”
Rough, I think, but know not to say,
Instead, I smile and pretend it’s okay.
Grandpa talks about NHL hockey,
Grandma with the small-town names,
I don’t know these people or this life,
Yet here I am, cutting the roast with their knife.
There’s the awkward silence with the cousins,
Strangers to each other for what—two years?
I must have forgotten.
Uncle makes fun of my brother’s shirt,
Aunt sits in mere existence.
Two different worlds united
Under one house, though it is painful,
Here is where I learned,
To navigate the dinner table.
*Published in Mystician 86.4*
The Vehemence of the Bay
By Sophia Fafard
In the early light of morn’
Soft gray mists caress pallid sky,
Lifting softly as a bride’s veil
Revealing the ever-vast beauty of the bay.
Wander, wander, down the dock,
Where lamps flicker lazily and gulls cry
Sailors hasten to their boats, the cool
Sea-spray upon weathered skin.
Upon the sky, their eyes are cast
Should the morning turn pink
The poor sailors, they may sink
To watery graves, where their fathers lay.
Yet wary hearts do not impede
The strength of sailor, and of sea
Though a peaceful postulant, she turns quite sour
In the dwindling hours, a black sky boils.
The bay, center of peace and war
Whom fishermen trust as a lover’s friend
Roils, with turbulent, howling wind
The sailors escape to the land’s soft embrace.
And the bay will rage through the night
Until tired of battle and fight
It will sigh, fog cast across waves
The gulls return to sing in serenity.
*Published in Figments Vol. 34*
Birthday
By Sophia Fafard
8th birthday.
Mom and Dad are happy today.
Happiness fills me and I taste it,
Tantalizingly sweet,
A treat I have not
Had in ages.
The cake is chocolate, hiding darker
Circumstances; I had not realized.
Blow out the candles
As Dad and Mom fight.
Cake flies, and I cower.
Door opens.
In comes Brother, sees
The cake on the floor.
My tears wiped away
By Brother’s shirt sleeve.
In the distance I hear yelling
Brother tells me it’s just dogs outside
Fighting over scraps
He drives me far, far away.
To a bakery with chocolate cake.
“Happy birthday,” he smiles.
Happiness—
Hesitant—
Rises in my chest.
*Published in Figments Vol. 33*
Faded Diamonds
By Sophia Fafard
Diamond petal gown, beautiful now,
Eyes shining in tender moonlit midnight,
A burning desire fate did allow,
When summer had faded, came winter’s plight.
Words and tenacious acts of love may die,
When the woman’s elegance withers here,
The man of fidelity, will he lie?
If she becomes a shrunken shell quite drear.
So will he call upon another wench?
Spoilt with pretty words and diamond things,
But he should well remember the clock’s clench,
Before the next girl is given a ring.
Diamonds may last longer than youth’s grace,
Cannot all the jewels be replaced?
*Published in Figments Vol. 33*
Wraith
By Sophia Fafard
I have walked farther
Then any man knows
I have wandered fields
Of glistening snow
Yet I have not found
A place to stay
A place to rest
For my bones to lay
I am a wraith among souls
Dead and cold,
I dare not go
Into the light of the morning sun,
Though it beckons me forth
I fear it and run.
I have not found
A place to stay
Though my body is frail
I continue to stray
The path ahead is fading
The wind is like a blade
Cutting across my chest until
My heart is severed from me.
I have finally fallen,
And given up
I have not found
A place to stay
A place to rest
For my bones to lay
No, I have not found
A place to lay.
*Published in Figments Vol. 34*