Several Poems from Anthologies by HilLesha O’Nan

Blackout

We head towards the East…
To escape the chaos
The sky
Starless
Is thickened with darkness
With no cars passing through
Dare any light shine?
No longer human
They
THEM
Watching
Waiting
To pounce any innocent passerby
Flesh for flesh
There’s nowhere to turn or hide
This is the blackout

Run, Run, Run

We’re surrounded
By a sea
Of trees
And darkness is closing in

Run, Run, Run

We need to hide
Or
They’ll find us

Run, Run, Run

We’re gasping for air, but we’re almost there.
Don’t look back…

There’s no time…
They’re lurking.

The shadows.

Run, Run, Run
Or time will escape us once again.

Drive

Drive, Drive, Drive
I’m on a mission to nowhere
I was lost
Until I found you
And now i’m here
With my foot on the gas pedal
And no destination in mind.

I was forced to breathe
When you ripped my heart out of its cavity
And only left me a box of memories
At my doorstep
No goodbyes
Just a box
Of memories

There’s a long road of possibilities ahead
And i’m going to
Drive, drive, drive
You out of my mind
My memories of you
Are going to be 5,000 miles behind me.

The Pale Horseman

Pale as ice
The horseman took out his sword
And wielded it across nation to nation
Striking the young and old
The healthy and sick
The poor and the rich
The humble and arrogant
As well as the innocent and guilty
He will continue to ride

Without remorse

A Brush of Death (cap) (an ode to Shirley Jackson)

Their green and brown caps
Glistening after a Fall rain
Merricat plucked one of the mushrooms
And brushed it against her lips
A brush of
Death
Cap
She inhaled its slightly ammoniac smell
Calmingly,
And briefly slipped into a trance like state
Merricat? Merricat?
The “spell” broke as her name was called
Merricat quickly plucked each mushroom
One by one
And threw them in her knapsack
For she had to make tea
For Constance
That she will send her
10 feet deep in the boneyard.

Marybelle

Marybelle
Her name means star of the sea
Rests beneath a sea of stars
Each night

Dare anyone who tries to disturb her slumber
Beneath the mortsafe
With its cage-like wrought iron,
And her headstone as if guarding it
A garland of roses are beautifully –
Etched in the sandstone.

Her name and epitaph
Deeply carved
Have defied the test of time.

Marybelle “Dingy” Rose
1834-1853

“We shall find you in the grey
Summer Garden amid the rain wet roses
Stir of wings, and the morning hills behind you”

The Price of Being Alice

I’m at the thrift store…
It’s Dark
And no one is in sight
I’m looking for something for the house

Instead, I stumbled upon an oddly-shaped
Ceramic of a white rabbit that is inspired by Alice in Wonderland

$3

And then I spot an Alice ceramic

$20

Why $17 more?

Being Alice comes at a cost yet
It doesn’t cost much to be the rabbit.

Its noted that the rabbit is the one that sparks the curiosity
After all,
It is the rabbit that leads Alice down the rabbit hole.

Alice runs after the rabbit,
Searching for it
Endlessly,
In Wonderland
This symbolizes her quest for
Knowledge.

It is the End (as we know it)

Internal wars raged on
In their minds.
Until they could no longer be contained
And spilled onto the streets –
With a parade of hatred.

Hearts became calloused
As children cried out
In their cages
FREE ME!

And those in needing to feed
The beast
Of hunger
Wearily held up their signs
FEED ME!

Yet they were unheard
Unseen
The forgotten
And that Summer they dropped like the flies
Buildings burned
Bridges collapsed
Mountains crumbled
The oceans dried their tears
Stars fell out of the sky like confetti
And the sun went out like a birthday candle
As if the world made its final wish

Off the Edge

There is something ominous
About the cold, grey skies yet –
The angels harmonize
Beautifully
All of a sudden
There is a suffocating stillness –
In the air and I feel like i’m being
Pushed off the edge.

Bio:HilLesha O’Nan is a blogger, writer, photographer & marketer. She is co-editor/founder of Fevers of the Mind Poetry & Art. She runs the blog tothemotherhood.com for over 15 years