Snakes and Ladders

 

Perpetual dawn, perpetual night 

Sewn on wing of terror’s bird; in full flight 

Fear it simmers, then as the frog, it... spawns

Dread, in abundance, as our hope’s furloughed 

Serpent sings and hisses... the sound’s the same 

Held in suspension; as the virus reigns 

Will vaccine’s ladder win back normal life?

Or is our game doomed... we’ll fall when it strikes?

©  Debbie Razey 2021 - Violet Moon Poetry.

Lucent Laces

 Lucent laces linger between us still

Worn words wager; of you I’ll n’er be healed

But when your heart bleeds... I must stop its spill 

Wanting to break free but not wishing you ill

Praying my Pandora heart... will stay sealed 

Lucent laces linger between us still

Your bonnie blues blind me to your cruel will

How heartless... heinous, is your appeal

But when your heart bleeds... I must stop its spill 

Wanted warm words... yours are sharpened to kill

Overt mine eyes but my love won’t conceal 

Lucent laces linger between us still

Angelic Adonis; your presence chills

Wounds split, re-open from hatred you wield 

But when your heart bleeds... I must stop its spill 

Dreams... delirium; unsurpassed your skill

I can still taste the blood as it congealed 

You were the hammer; I was your anvil 

Lucent laces linger between us still

But when your heart bleeds... I must stop its spill 

© Debbie Razey - Violet Moon Poetry 2020

Violet

 

Cottage garden... bees in the foxgloves

Pansies I picked for my Nanna’s grave 

Once was a child blackberry picking 

Cherub face and hands greedily stained

Lancashire Fells awash in heather 

Pastel waves in sunset, solstice skies 

Fingerprints I left on fine linen

After eating Grandma’s home-baked pies

Rich amethyst which is my birthstone 

Upon finger; a silver band, set  

Guitar painted and highly lacquered

Snuggling under my fluffy blanket 

My first pair of velvet Doc Martens 

My wardrobe transcends all of its shades  

Wrapper of favourite chocolate

Relief... aura as a migraine fades

My lips, when I’ve had too much Merlot 

Intoxicated... impassioned kiss 

Moonlight shines on our slumber’s satin

Where I show you how much you’ve been missed 

Milky Way and all of her wonder

Imbrued, violet majestic tones

A colour that tastes of my childhood 

Feels like... being naked, in your arms 

Smells of baking day and wildflowers 

Speaks of nature’s bounty... Summer skies 

Seen from my mind’s eye, at crown chakra 

Promotes compassion, peace and insight 

To me, it’s more than just a pigment

Or how I choose to furnish in tones

It’s a state of mind; a vibration 

It’s fond memories... essence of home 

It’s the name I gave to my daughter

It’s the accent of our wedding day 

It’s in painted words of poetry 

It’s how I’ll be remembered... someday 

©  Debbie Razey 2020 - Violet Moon Poetry.

Death Bell

The government says our schools will be safe 

Yet many a mistake they’ve made in haste 

Like the fiasco of exam results

Should we, to them, our children’s lives entrust?

Doctors are saying the guidance is wrong

Kids aren’t immune and they will pass it along

To the vulnerable, parents... teachers too

It makes sense to learn more, not act too soon

Our families are, our most precious gift

We only want to choose, without conflict  

Instead, we’re threatened with penalties... fines

Too late to repent when people have died 

It’s now proven COVID lingers in air 

That to safeguard ourselves, masks we should wear

That children will be infection drivers 

Implications of this... are not minor 

I know our economy’s suffered... but

Potential consequences make me shudder

Haven’t we already lost too many?

How many more loved ones must we bury? 

Aren’t you, our government, there to protect?

Your strategies so far have been inept 

Lack of PPE, dire Track and Trace 

Our country’s death toll... a shocking disgrace 

Please heed our cries, the vulnerable protect 

Don’t lead our teachers to an early death

Don’t make any more kids become orphans 

Allow parents their offspring to stay home 

Yes... children’s mental health we must protect 

But will it be, if their parents are dead?

Let’s learn from the tragedy in care homes 

Allow kids to thrive in COVID free homes  

So please let us now avert tragedy 

Let your names go down in our history 

As wise leaders, who saved us... were heroes

Don’t leave for all time this death bell to toll

©  Debbie Razey 2020 - Violet Moon Poetry.

     Both Poem and Photograph

CHAPBOOK Never Alone

Up in thermals I’ll always be 

With outstretched wings over sea sheen

In sunset hours of dusky tones

It’s there you’ll find I’ve made my home 

Fields aglisten in morning’s dew

Dawn’s still hours of gossamer hues 

Coins you’ll find when there’s been too few

In warmed hands curled around your brew

You’ll feel my light upon your face 

In twilight’s throng, my lost embrace 

In veil of night, laid at your side

Never alone we’re moon and tide   

Although no longer I’m alive 

Hear my echoes in all that’s life 

In crashing waves, a newborn’s cry

A crackling fire, in sweet rest’s... sigh 

In silk-spun notes, a rhythm’s beat

In autumn leaves under your feet 

When raindrops stick to windowpanes 

And all your efforts seem in vain 

For I’ll be there to will you on 

Breath, it ceased but my love lives on 

You’ll feel at times my hand in yours 

Kissing your wounds, healing your sores

I'll watch o’er you from stars above 

In slumber’s arms, you’ll feel my love

Remember... however long the years 

I’m in our children’s smiles and tears 

©  Debbie Razey 2020 - Violet Moon Poetry.

Vestige

White screen, my mind, but I can hear churning behind

Taunting me with dust particles of memories  

They come fleetingly to me and then leave;

rewired, nerve nuclear-lined highways, 

all in the same surreptitious instance

This putrid deep pit, where my stomach once lived; 

muffles my pain, dulled by it's heavy set void of emptiness 

My echoed mute screams, erodes all my dreams

Vibrations... all I’ve left to feel, in this someone called ”Me”

who I hear whisper... dissociatively

Nausea chokes in my throat like an acrid, vile smoke 

My taste, paralysed with the sting of delusion I once willfully ingested  

My eternal thirst grows from my quicksand life’s hole

Each grain from the hourglass chimes...

reminds me of my precious time, squandered futilely  

Oh how do I find, my way out of this labyrinth of lull

This grotesque colourless light, which strips my eyes

of all the layers and layers of years’ sights; 

of things I can’t quite catch or recount to mention 

To evade, perhaps, was my plight... but to forget was never my intention

How then, can I not drown in this tear-drenched sound 

Abandoned to a destiny, shackled in dense air’s suspension 

Does anyone remember me back then...

as all I can recall is a sepia faint soul 

A painful burnt parchment, I was supposed to hold onto and cherish 

Dreams turned torture long ago... I was left to float 

Yet anchored by hope, to a lie in subterfuge sold;

that I’ve clung to for many a yesteryear, desperately 

Death would be a relief but numbness is a thief 

and refuses me the strength of will now to enter 

I can’t find my way back, through this matrix of clues

Past all the fake facades, swathed in self-hatred 

I’m now trapped and embalmed, begging for time to recant 

Motionless laid... within the fast lane 

Deafened, by my own tachycardic heart’s pointless beating 

So if you can remember me and I shared with you, dreams

Please, come walk me though my mind’s wilting vestiges. 

© Debbie Razey 2020 - Violet Moon Poetry.

Poem and art

Cosmic Love

You stare 

at my body

as astronomers, the night sky 

Drinking in every last detail, 

in awe

Saving  

to memory 

my shape’s constellation; 

my curves, peaks, falls... burn in your eyes

wildly 

Starlight, 

reflected back 

illuminates your form

Your moist bronze skin shimmers like jewelled

moonlight 

Red dawfs 

reawakened, explode 

at our cores... evoke primal need

wanting

Shooting 

stars through our veins

as earth’s gravity fails 

to keep us grounded... free falling 

The pull  

between 

overwhelming 

Two glowing comets   

quantumly entangled, we move 

as one  

©  Debbie Razey 2019 - Violet Moon Poetry.