Descending Tiers of Tightening Knots

~ for the Bag Lady who roams the Dockside of the City ~

by Paul Tristram / December 25th, 2022

… Today will not be a Wasted Day…
I’ve just stitched another few hours
into the Distance between us.
I used to laugh at ‘Red Flags’…
now, I no longer get to see them,
I sense them before they appear
… and am off away on me toes.
Yesterday, I held the shaking hand
of a homeless lady named Jane…
who tried explaining to me
the Grief of losing 2 infant children
in a Christmas house fire
… and she turned to drink…
[OF COURSE SHE FUCKING DID!]
… and crawled out of bed each day
Suicidal… to finally catch
her husband fucking her own sister
in the garden shed 8 months later
… they laughed in her horrified face.
“Why does God torture us so?”
she asked, trembling and desperate.
“I dunno.” I replied, pulling away.
“Your ‘Pain’ is the most Perfect
thing that I’ve ever come across…
it’s breaking my black heart to bits
and I’m not even the one inhabiting it.”

Paul Tristram is a widely published Welsh writer who deals in the Lowlife, Outsider, and Outlaw genres.  He wrote his first poem as a teenager following his release from the (Infamous) Borstal ‘HMP Portland’, and he has been creating Literary Terrorism ever since.  His novel ‘Crazy Like Emotion’ is available to purchase right here . Also his collection of shorter fiction Kicking Back Drunk ‘Round The Candletree Graves' is available to purchase at https://bookgoodies.com/a/B0DFMTSR4F Both books are published by Close To The Bone Publishing. Read other articles by Paul, or visit Paul's website.

This article was posted on Sunday, December 25th, 2022 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.