Gargoyles

When their hearts and bodies
ached, they imagined beings
able to transcend toil
only love made tolerable;
and the hurt, embryonic wings

reluctantly unfolding
from sore shoulders like
horse chestnut leaves.
More cloister bat than angel
these mute creatures

summoned in desperation
can’t offer hope or salvation;
but they’ll sit with you all day
though you refuse their comfort –
until you’re less lonely than them.
–
0
8
u
An earlier version first published in IS&T 2017. Also in my first collection, Wish (Maytree Press 2019).

Preview of 13 Lines from upcoming Slice Of The Moon Anthology

A small excerpt from one of my poems, to be published in the forthcoming anthology ‘Maiden, Mother, Crone’, by Slice Of The Moon Publishers. Image by B Brandt.