Poet: Lyn Rochelle
Website: Two Ghosts

---

I cannot rip your womb
any more, Mother.
Another tear,
and all innocence
is lost forever.

Waiting in the deepening tide,
the ocean deceives me
with its melody,
as if life is an opera.

Venus chants her seduction,
knows the words
to thrust me on.

Can’t I float back,
avoid gratitude to the giver,
renounce the life,
take away all praise?

But you’re waiting
to show off the gift,
to see a new blaze
and how I burn.

Lyn Rochelle, 2012