Poetry & Art

Things that used to keep me caged

There’s a curve with this one, for sure

no cure all, just climbing walls and small mountains,

exorcising phantoms. I’m shaking the

heavy weight of my mistakes

and it wakes me from this slumber

sliding me into wondering.

Fondling old hopes from

every scope in my every blunder,

percieved or real. Feeling nostalgic, but

from a distance. Ship to shore, nothing more than

my previous pages and some softened raging.

Things that used to keep me caged

are now platforms for raising me.

And it stopped the unraveling of my heart strings,

gave me those wings and

opened my throat so I could sing like this. In a

melded combination of a hiss and a kiss. Lifting off

into a shifting, arriving at an awareness that is part

terrifying and part bliss. Part forsaking and

part awakening.

That multi-faceted fog is lifting, slowly revealing to me,

the reasons for navigating darkness at this pin prick

point in my my life, dancing towards cronedom.

Greying hair and looser skin, bright eyes and the

darkest grin. Done with living someone else’s lies and

having to survive like Alice, drifting on my own crying.

Inspiring me to burn brighter instead of seeking shelter,

no matter how much it hurts, not flying is worse. And

that’s when I use what I can as a raft, laughing

maniacally because I can see that I have to do this, I

can’t depend on my wish list. I take the broken parts

and glue, filling and building that platform, or

ladder if you will.

I like to purge and upcycle with gratitude as I

flex my fortitude

and coax my attitude to drop the knives and stop biting.

It leaves me lighter for flight and my

eyes wider for seeing.

My mind opened for believing and my

heart healed for feeling.

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by Shannon Mastromonico

SHANNON MASTROMONICO was born and raised in Montreal. She has been writing for almost thirty years.

Her poetry has been published in literary journals such as Montréal Writes, Persephone's Daughters, Snapdragon Journal, Ink & Voices and her 2018 self published chapbook.

Currently, she is working on her first full length novel and a poetic graphic novel.

She lives with her husband and kitty, Calliope in the Laurentian Mountains.


Website

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