Your Lies

With so many years peppered with clues
I wonder now why I'm so surprised
at finding out about your secret life

and I stand transfixed
as your body elongates
grows thinner
and falls to the ground

green and gold begin to shimmer
along your new form
yet you are still majestic
and I always loved you
for the colours that you were

in time
we both know
you'll shed your skin -
be laid bare for a while
but still you hiss your lies
at my mouth and ears and eyes

and you coil yourself around me tight
so tight that I can hardly breathe

you don't want me to leave

but for now
I can't do anything but remain aloof
and you can't hide
as you slither
around, above and beneath
the truth.

(c) JH

Stranded

At the start there were compliments
texts, emails, phone calls -
you reeled me in
you spoke of love
when you whispered my name

now
it's not the same
you jump back
startled
scared of your feelings

I see whole armies of you
retreating in fear
running for cover
putting up barricades

you're in too deep
way over your head
you don't have to tell me
I can hear all the words you have not said

but, for me,
it's like being stranded far from home
sitting on my suitcase
full of all those changes that I made
just to be with you

it feels like you took me to some distant place
and left me there
alone.

(c) JH
 

Driftwood

I'm too young to lay down and die
and too numb to cry
but this hurts -
this empty space
in the place
where my heart once was

people like you do harm
laden with charm
forever coming in and of people's lives
like driftwood

I should have had damage limitation
from you
so that your words
and the way you looked right into me
wouldn't matter

they wouldn't even matter
after all these years.


(c) JH