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Writer's pictureLavinia Thompson

Poem ~ Scratching at Walls

I won’t drive until I’m crazy;

that’s what I tell myself.

I won’t stand on the roadside

Staring at the moon.

Instead, I long for

a bed of roses in summertime;

might my spirit

finally rest then.


Scratching at the walls of this town,

the years passing like it’s a prison

until I’m too tired

to fight anymore.

What I’d give to drive

and never return

the way I watched you do

many years ago


I hung around awaiting

the day I would too,

but the whiskey runs dry,

dreams dissipate

in wisps of smoke outside

another neon light barroom.

We used to talk about

what you mean to me

but tonight, it’s a secret love

dead and gone.


Like wildflowers

growing through a skeleton

long forgotten.

I lost my way

staying in one place,

scratching at walls, at dirt,

anything that feels

destructive to this restlessness

eating away at my bones.

Maybe that’s how petals

came to caress the rib cage

and skull of another.

Who are you and were you

terrified of dying here too?


So, I drive until I am crazy

only to return to

scratching at these walls,

but the whiskey goes dry

and I

want to dissipate into smoke

somewhere as far away

as that ghost of me.



Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

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