Day 17 National Poetry Writing Month 

Dwelling
deep in the darkness
where hearts breathe less,
held hidden below the humour,
like a tumour, there’ve been shadows
dancing, all this while, to a beat he cannot follow,
to a music he cannot swallow, that cannot be
caressed, a syncopated sadness
with no cord considered,
with no harmony held
within this hell,
a scintillating
score
of deafening
silence, no more
synergy within the darkness,
no more energy where the light is less.
and less, in this darkness, dwelling deep below
the surface, where the beast makes mess and worms wiggle
through worries, wiggle through niggles, through all
of what’s been left, after all these years,
after the fight and the fears, after
the struggle, after the tears,
after the lies, the raw
lies, exposed
lies,
sharpened
lies that cut like glass,
glass that holds no reflection
but distraction, glass that cracks
with the weight of what’s been done. Crash
and see fragility smash on the floor
of the darkness with no door.
Dwelling deep down in the
darkness, there are
sharp edges
to swallow.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly