Poems from Elle's perspective

Compromise

Peace,
hard won,
a tepid victory.
It isn't mediation
with only one person
at the fucking table, right?

Your door
always open,
sounds friendly.
But your shadow
never darkens my
doorstep. Well, maybe
just once, a token gesture.

Tyres
endlessly
laying tracks
from here to there,
Eketahuna to Timbuktu.
I live so far away, you wail,
but it's okay for me to travel it.
Gooses, ganders, well, I call bullshit.

Small
requests
so casually
requested, nay,
they're demanded.
A couch, table, BBQ...
Why the fuck did you buy it
if you cannot get it home? Wait,
it just so happens I know someone.
They won't mind. I'm sure they won't.
Well, what choice do they have now, huh?

Stifled,
suffocating,
trying to breathe
through resentment.
My bitterness is my burden,
not theirs. It doesn't touch them,
so one stone at a time, I'm building
a bridge. I'll get over it, again. It's what I do.


Free verse. Written 4 January 2016.