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Creative

at the water’s edge

Words by Vanessa Liao

Art by Des Ramjee

CW: Death, Conflict

 

in my dreams, water,

lapping along the concave

terracotta tiles of bathroom floors

where lights, streaking, blinding

 

and there i lay, skin to skin 

like a mother’s homely touch of cold 

yet warm blooded connection 

with these same, overgrown stories

 

here my hands cannot

find a way to break free

of a force that holds them within

together they are crucified

 

stakes are high and lights, 

a sickly shade of hospital white

but in contrast it’s not quite

drawing near the end of my life 

 

gone are the likes of family tree roots

severed are the ties of crimes believed truth

for in our dreams the world is imaginable 

there exists a sphere, unpainted –

 

waiting endlessly for a canvas of my memory

if distance and time are deal breakers

setting alight the library inside 

my soul bleeds a shade of emerald green

 

gone are the days i slip within

the cracks between a vision of

ambition, a predicament, a pause

and shed what is left of me

 

from baby steps beyond my feet

to blazing halls that creak in death

i ponder when – and only when

leaves will shed and offspring grow

 

until tomorrow will i brush away these sighs

until then these whispers wash over my guise



Vanessa Liao

The author Vanessa Liao

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