KB Ballentine
Demon, demon, you have dumped me
like Sylvia’s daddy into red poppies
that blister my skin, settle into my heart
Nobody cared if the moon went black
when he shrugged and walked away
The trees groaned as he passed,
wrens winging through shifting leaves
Each knows where the others are
When doubt clutches the belly, the brain
refuses to play its part
An actor on strike, nothing to say
lines lost or broken, tumbled
into the darkness of yesterday
falling away from tomorrow
where everything is only waiting
***
KB Ballentine’s sixth collection, The Light Tears Loose, appeared this summer with Blue Light Press. Published in Crab Orchard Review and Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, among others, her work also appears in anthologies including In Plein Air (2017) and Carrying the Branch: Poets in Search of Peace (2017). Learn more at www.kbballentine.com.