. . . with my thanks to all who don’t play down the dark side of life

we all have so many scars
that we have grown roots
now rotting fast
in that favorite place of many a gathering
your kitchen my kitchen those dearest friends’ kitchen

grandma’s kitchen mama’s kitchen dad’s i too can cook-kitchen
each cupboard smelling like their pain med
poorly prescribed for their end
witches’ brew in a cauldron before us
even the back burner’s simmer-dial
scorches the ancestral ladle right off of our hand
the same hand we thought could control our fingers
which in turn would glow to show us whether to stir clockwise
or counter-clockwise
with rigor or not
how many times
for how long
when
why

our embarrassingly short short-term-memory
convinces us to believe fairy-tales all over again
that maybe just maybe
a tiny batch of soul food
would drizzle out of such gooey gunk
enchanting us in to our prenatal sheath
thus gifting us with a little breather
in order that we can tend our scabs
tend to the gashes in our hearts

instead

the immortal spell-thrower

engulfs us

with a flood of burning ashes
spooned right out of the pot of our own churning

and
our bruises
while still in their nth round of incrustation
turn blood red once more
because our systemic veins are wide-open yet once more 

© hülya n. yılmaz, 10.0.2016 

2 Comments

Filed under Reflections

2 responses to “. . . with my thanks to all who don’t play down the dark side of life

  1. love the honesty you explore here ❤

    Like

  2. An evocative fine piece of poetic literature that rocks one from dark to light, back and forth, thus so to end in the dark as in the beginning, which in retrospect is where we unconscionably start and continue so thru interludes of short lived light, at times sufficiently worthy to continue. As to the dark side of life, that is the stuff of words and contemplation, and a place one must travel to find said interludes. Excellent piece Hülya!

    Like

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