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.
