Claire Scott

Two Worlds

She faded away
not because he turned to look
the myth has it all wrong
she didn’t walk behind him out of deference
or misplaced misogyny
but out of ambiguity
pulled by both worlds
the bounteous world of grains and flowers
and the stygian world of wandering shades
where she walked with her ancestors
she went back because she preferred
the dark depths of Hades’ embrace
to a boy-child with a lyre
she did not feel trapped in the underworld
she chose it

 

Life Is A Short Place

A softer passion, a richer love
stretching like eagles’ wings
over this church without walls

limping on canes, hunched over walkers
raddled faces on shivering shadows

grey blood in old bodies

living in rooms we did not choose
runes of regret, flaws and failures
the soft light of lies

what of long memories of Kilimanjaro
glaciers glinting blue dawn

grandkids grinning
licking icing with sticky fingers

the vigil of chemo dripping poison
a heart hesitating, a surgeon’s knife

death stalking on silent paws

moments flash, time taken away
a brief coda in D minor

what of white hills and wool mittens
dragging sleds up snowy hills

o res mirabilis
let’s do it again

 

Claire Scott is an award-winning poet who has received multiple Pushcart Prize nominations. Her work has appeared in the Atlanta Review, Bellevue Literary Review, New Ohio Review and Healing Muse among others. Claire is the author of Waiting to be Called and Until I Couldn’t. She is the co-author of Unfolding in Light: A Sisters’ Journey in Photography and Poetry.