Poems on Pain by Alice Arbuthnot (ebook reader web .txt) 📕

You’re Still with Me
Alice Arbuthnot

Darkness creeps in as the day fades away.
Light goes as the thoughts of you come in.
Stillness grows as the world turns gray.
And with the dark, you come again.

Though they say you never did part
You’d always be with me.
There’s still a sad spot in my heart,
That you used to fill with glee.

I know you like where you are,
But that does not mean
That all that you did on this earth so far
Will ever go unseen.

Memoriam Stanza

Blending In
Alice Arbuthnot

A

nyone can pretend to
B

e alright, anyone
C

an pretend to be just fine, anyone can
D

o things to blend in
E

veryone can pretend
F

rankly many notice, but don’t care, they’re
G

iven the name ”fakers” and tossed away
B

ut everyone should understand, how it feels to have to blend in.
ABC

Diabetic
Alice Arbuthnot

It’s getting low again
So I stab myself once more,
And find my insulin
And shoot up before heading out the door.
I was in a rush
So I ran to the van,
Through the grass, so lush,
As fast as I can.
In my blunder
I didn’t wonder,
Where my bag had gone
When I ran across the lawn.
I remembered later when I thought back,
But I had already gone into diabetic attack.
Sonnet

Lovely Lost
Alice Arbuthnot

I miss her so much,
My love that I lost.
She was my life,
And my life was taken too soon.
Now she lay six feet under
In the world of the dead.
But I’ll still love her forever,
Because Lovely,
You were my life.
My beautiful wife.
Elegy

May
Alice Arbuthnot

We were going to the beach one day,
One fine day in the middle of May.
All of a sudden the storm clouds lay,
Lay thick, on that fine May day.

We did not make it to the bay.
We didn’t see the tree round the way.
In the haze of rain, the world turned gray,
That fine day in the middle of May.

The song still haunts me to today.
The song of that blue jay.
The blue jay that sang as she lay
Under the tree, around the way,
That fateful day in the middle of May.
Rhyme

Seeking Understanding
Alice Arbuthnot

What I don’t understand
Is how one could raise a hand
To such a small child
Even if he or she is acting wild.
Punishment is one thing
But don’t you see what you’re doing?
They don’t deserve your hand
Don’t deserve your brand.
Lyric

Who's the Hero?
Alice Arbuthnot

I grabbed the arm he had raised,
And took him to the ground unfazed.
I held him there as my partner ran to the chair.
He checked the child, so bruised,
So obviously abused.
He said he was alive, but barely
And I put my gun to the man’s head swiftly.
The man flinched away,
“Put it down” I thought I heard my partner say.
“If I don’t?” I asked him.
“Then I’d have to kill you, Jim.”
I lowered my gun and went to the child.
The evidences of abuse were not mild.
I took him in my arms and carried him out the door.
“Thanks,” I said on my way out, and nothing more.

Later my partner said he's said nothing
But if so, who stopped the shooting?
Days later the child said it was he.
When I asked why, this is what he said to me,

"The world doesn’t always look so grim.
If you shot the man, you’d be no better than him.
My father isn’t so bad, that, I knew.
And if you’d killed him, I’d kill you too.

It’s always darkest before the light.
Everything’s worse in the night.
You looked through shades of gray,
When you saw me there that day.
You thought you were the hero,
And from your point it looked so.

My father isn’t like bad men.
He wasn’t hurting me when you came in.
The one who hurt me was long gone
By the time the scene you came on.
If I’d let you take him
My world would have gone dim.

Before the light,
In the night,
The journey he would take,
To check on me, for my sake
Every day, on that journey he’d go
So if not him, who is the hero?"
Couplet

An Answered Prayer
Alice Arbuthnot

Under this angel
Lies a little girl
With few friends
And many foes.
Every night she’d pray for a casket
So she wouldn’t have to hid the bruises and scars.
Then one night her prayer was answered.
Now she’s protected from his hands forever.

Epitaph

Cancer
Alice Arbuthnot

The doctor said
The cancer spread.
She held for months
But now she’s dead.
She smiled through the pain,
And gave us hope in vain
But in the end she beat the cancer
Because she entered an eternal slumber.

Elegy

Extinguished
Alice Arbuthnot

I don’t see the light
That used to be in your eyes.
Because his lies
Have taught you to fight
You’ve forgotten what’s right.
It’s too late to realize.
Cause you’re the one who cries.
Cause you fought with all your mite.

The innocence is gone.
Your fight is done.
You’ve given in
To the approaching dawn.
The dawn of another one
Beating you again.

Petrarchan

For the Broken
Alice Arbuthnot

As they walk by,
One must wonder why.
Why the wicked give the torment
And the good receive their judgment,
Why must the evil persevere
And “Are there any good left here?”
Who are the evil, who are the despised?
None know but those that are wised.
The elderly, the innocent, the blind, the slaved,
The lonely, and the remnant of those who were saved.
Saved from the evil, saved from the vile.
Saved, at least for a while.
What did they do to receive your hand?
What did they do to receive your brand?
The brand of the abused, who have hurt from the start.
A black eye, lost tooth, and a broken heart.

Couplet

In the Night
Alice Arbuthnot

I see in the night
Your face on the darkest night
I still see you there
Without the sun’s coming light
Under the blanket of night.

I heard you last night
In the darkness of the world
I heard your heartbeat
Like I would hear it before
So my tears rolled in the night.

Tanka

Schizophrenic
Alice Arbuthnot

Though I see the world in light,
It still gives me a fright.
The shadows against the wall
A boy playing with a ball.

When comes the night
I must fight.
Against the shadows and the boy
As they hit and scratch me and screech with joy.
I hide in the streets, but they find me,
Throwing stones and cans at me as I flee.

No one stops to help me.
They don’t even seem to see,
The boy or the shadows
The girl in the gallows.
Them, none can see
Except for me.
Couplet

Since you’ve Gone
Alice Arbuthnot

A

t night I whisper your name
B

ecause your gone
C

ause I can
D

on’t think you leave my mind,
E

ven for a minute
F

or a second.
G

o through every moment together, I do.
H

aunt your voice does me
I

n my dreams
Y

ou’ve never left my mind, since you’ve gone.
ABC

Taken in a Second
Alice Arbuthnot

Take me by the hand, lead me away
To the place where I will stay.
To the place where they know my pain;
Where they know my hurt, know my gain.
The gain of loss and suffering,
Why is it so unending?

Just the sound of a horn makes me flinch,
Makes my skin crawl an inch.
Just the jerk of the car will make me shutter.
Makes me think of them, then my heart will flutter.
Flutter so hard, it makes me a lone flyer.
Newly orphaned by a drunk driver.

Free Verse

The King of Spades
Alice Arbuthnot

Though I say “It’s all alright,
It’ll just be tonight.”
Though I say “It’ll be fine,
No one will see these scars of mine.”
I know that when night fades
I’ll be the King of Spades;
Hiding behind my mask of cards,
That slice and cut like glass shards.
Covering my wounds with my sleeve
And grabbing my cards before I leave.
None can see behind my mask.
So busy with their own lives, why ask?
Jumping into my personal Twilight Zone,
Call me what you like, emo, cutter, or just alone.
Couplet

The Lost Lover
Alice Arbuthnot

Cry, Cry, Cry
I cry out for you, but you do not hear.
I yell your name, but your nowhere near.
Please, Please, Please
I plea for you, but you are gone.
I scream out for you, but there’s no one.
Help, Help, Help
I need your help, your love, your touch.
I want your heart, your hand so much.
Die, Die, Die
I can’t stand the pain, I need the rest.
If it only comes from death, I’d be blest.

Free Verse

Alice Arbuthnot

T

hrough the dark I
H

ear him yell as he
E

nters into the gates of Hell

L

iving no longer in
O

ur world, now that he’s
S

atan’s slave
T

urning in his fiery pit.

M

any screams he hears
A

round him now
N

ow that his life is gone.

Name

Unnoticed
Alice Arbuthnot

Did you ever wonder
Why he would cry,
Or walk away in a blunder?
Did you ever wonder why?

Did you ever worry
Where his bruise came from,
Why he always said, “I’m sorry,”
Or never play or run?

Did you ever see
The way he wouldn’t meet your eye
Or talk to only me?
Do you ever wonder why?

Did you ever know
He’s always in sight?
The one who’s quiet and won’t fight.
And just because he went unnoticed,
Does that make it right?

But though now you’ve noticed
What you’ve seen all along.
It’s too late to help,
Cause now, I’m dead and gone

Dramatic Monologue

What the World Sees
Alice Arbuthnot

A

ll the world seems fine
B

eing told what is right
C

an none see the shattered
D

esolated by your words
E

ndowed the worst
F

orgiving none
G

oing through the world with hate
D

o none see the hurt, lost and shamed?

ABC