3 poems by Margaret Pearce

DEPRESSION

From the far lonely reaches of my fears,
Incubating from the blackness below
Depression stirs, that carrion crow
An obscene shape across unshed tears.
Sensing the failing confidence crying,
Circling to the summons of silent screams,
Tearing at the entrails of broken dreams
Spilling unborn hopes from corpse still dying.
Gorging on the malice of transient friends
Unsated the feral weed of paranoia thrives
Choking fragile reason from despairing lives
Breaks through at last, and into reality blends.
And that dense black shadow across my years,
Feeds monstrous life into those carrion fears.


A BIRD UNIQUE

Hoo hoo hoo, and he haw hay
Laughed the Kooka on his way.
Afer him the Magpies chased
Winging past in reckless haste.
What was it that the Kooka heard
To cause the Magpies get so stirred?
An ornithologist rushed to meet
A Magpie walking on two sore feet.
‘I’m scared to fly,’the Magpie wailed
They laughed at me because I failed.’
He then limped on, a bird unique
An unhappy agoraphobic freak.

A version of this published Swag of Verse 2007 one use only
A version of this published Geelong Writers 2016 one use only
A version of this published freexpression magazine, February 2021 one use only

ANALYSIS

Do I resent the chains around me
Bound by habit
Imbedded so deeply in my soul
That all eternity will show the mark?
Where love and hate each in their turn
Strengthen bondage with their grasp
Twin warders guarding front and back doors
Every loophole and every crevice.
Self chosen prison confining flesh
Torn apart by inward storms
Treacherous currents of indecision
Cowed to stillness by convention.
Cringing back from duty’s lashes
Lost forever is the key
The price for cowards is too high
Leaving lurking in the shadows
The lonely captive snatching
Fleeting glimpses of freedom
Yearningly
Through self barred windows.

Bionote

I was a sickly child and an omnivorous reader which made for a harmonious and pleasant substitute for most of the schools I was supposed to attend. My love of fantasy started at seven years of age when all magazines with lurid covers kept getting snatched off me. Launched on an unsuspecting commercial world I ended up copywriting in an advertising department. I took to writing instead of drink when raising children. Said children embarrassed at me getting published. You never run out of material when knee deep in children. I completed an Arts Degree at Monash University as a mature age student. I have mainly had published children's and teenage novels print and ebooks as currently listed on Amazon, Book Depository, Kindle and writers-exchange.com