The Stalkers

They come en masse and they get me alone,

I hoped I would forget.       

I furtively tried to banish them all

to the dark corners of an oubliette.

But they just added fuel to the fire,

now whispers ricochet.

Recollections play snakes and ladders

with the words I was unable to say.

These ungraspable wisps how they haunt me,

they echo and they moan.

I cannot swallow back the un-uttered,

cannot silence the regrettable drone.

© Laura Howard 2012

Stay

And so winter has come,

stealing back that all too powerful hour

and with it,

the light.

Hours pass like silhouettes

through ephemeral days 
that emerge, 

hesitate,

then ruefully shrink away

towards the empty corners

and pointless edges of my room.

All that remains is a stifling gloom,

and sadness,

lying low on bare floorboards.

These walls around me are porous,

life and time seep through them

and away.

Nothing can stay.

©Laura Howard 2012