Challenging Poetry

a healing process

to write, it's important to dig
down, into the depths
of me, traversing minefields
and barbed wires and
jagged spikes that
cut until I bleed words
onto the page. Not
every word comes from blood,
of course, but the brighter,
happier, simpler moments
are lighter by contrast
to the scenes that wring
me dry, until the boil is lanced,
the pimple is popped, the
awfulness is on the page
and not within me anymore,
and I can breathe free again.

April 30—Catharsis