For Centuries I've Held You In My Prayers/Today I Am Resentful.

By GABRIELLE LAWRENCE

in Fall 2017

Sedrick Miles, "Irmandade da Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte III," 2017

For Centuries I’ve Held You In My Prayers

Someone had to have sat by

my bedside

all night.

Someone must have stroked my hair—

dragging their hands

from the top of my head to the nape of neck,

planting soft kisses on the peaks

of my cheekbones.

Someone held my hand in theirs, or

pressed their mouth to my chest

and whispered prayers of peace

in pieces.

For if someone had not sat by

my bedside

                                                                                                                                                                          all night—

                                                                                                               My eyelids would not have parted,

at the faintest beam of sunlight.

---

Today I Am Resentful.

Today I am resentful.

A poem woke me up at 3am

It slithered its way into my dreams

Pushed me off the ledge with a twirl

And sent me curling, flailing

Landing at first with a soft thump,

Finally sinking into the depressed surface of a sweaty mattress

Tangled in twisted sheets

Opening my eyes to the static of a dark room

Staring at a blank white wall—

For God’s sake if there’s to be any hope for me

at all

I cannot afford anymore dark circles sagging beneath my

Perpetually foggy eyes

---

Gabrielle Lawrence is a poet, editor, and writer. She holds a B.A. in English and is pursuing her M.F.A. in poetry at the University of Central Arkansas. She is the Associate Editor for Linden Avenue Literary Journal and the Co-Executive Editor of Trio House Press. Her writing can be found in Gravel Magazine, Words Apart Magazine, The Chaos: Journal of Personal Narrative and West Wind Literary Journal.