To Cast Aside a Soul

In darkness you allow yourself to breathe And cast away the day's anxiety Forlorn and loveless ere you travel now This town which ransoms souls away for ghosts

For none can see you when you pass their way Your scholars cloak but ruined, tattered, worn Though not in service or in accolade But only what remained to keep you warm

You thought you’d come this way before, survived Though not despairing of a flowering field Of future though you failed to plough or seed And thus knew not the cruel reality

For hope mean naught in streets with cruel jaws wide Plucked violently from childhood’s uncreased brow But message clear from birth tile eyes did fade You never were one to belong revealed

Your soul too precious for one valued not But only used as a source for other’s fair Their inner worth in need of bolstering Destroyed you so their image could be made

A word on lips an offering of love A drop of water poured into the sea For words in absence of an action’s deed Erase the truth creating misery

Natalie Frank (Taye Carrol) has had work featured in Haunted Waters Press, Weirdbook Magazine, Siren’s Call Publications, Lycan Valley Press and Zero Fiction among others. Her poetry has been featured a several anthologies. She is the Managing Editor for Novellas and Serials at LVP Publications.

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