silenced city

In a Silenced City

the lady in the deep red cloak

leaves herself – finally -

beaten, bloody and naked in the street.

Her bare but steady feet

trace tear-streaked footprints in the cobblestone

that has borne the weary journey

of those few before her who lived to tell.

And the jagged concrete landscape

rises up to wage its losing battle against her glorious dawn.

The angry, primal cries

now ring dark and dead as obscurity itself.

And she walks.

Through broken glass she walks

with gratitude that she can feel at all.

As she finds her way home.

~Christine Lasher, 1/25/10