The Storm Thrush

Flying in the face of all life throws at you

The Storm Thrush

 

Why did you vanish and leave me to burn

What is the lesson you wish me to learn

Why are the voices I thought were my friends

Reluctant to speak and achieve their own ends

 

Sometimes you gather and sometimes you lose

Sometimes the ashes are not what you choose

Tomorrow has laughter that you cannot borrow

Sufficient today is the measured out sorrow

 

Meter and purpose and orderly pages

Angels and demons and forgotten rages

Marry in haste and repent at your leisure

The dreams that I kept are subject to seizure

 

Holiness gathers its wings for my flight

Memory settles and reaches for night

Bring out the charges for all of my crimes

Truth will speak louder than all of my rhymes

 

-Zoe Richardson (2025)

Author's Note

The struggle is real. So is the truth.

Reviews

[Christine]

Your poem is honest, punchy and rhythmic. A pleasure to read. And yes, truth will speak louder.....

[Zoe Richardson]

Thank you! This was just a bit of whimsy that popped into my head. I like playing with rhymes, as you can tell!

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Smart rhyme in this...The words used to fit the rhyme scheme actually work here to advance the idea.
Sometimes rhyming is for the sake of rhyming but it throws off the content.
Really moving poem.
j.

[Zoe Richardson]

It's a struggle sometimes to write a rhyming poem, for that very reason. I have to sit with it so the right word that conveys the right image gets used. Otherwise, the reader feels a sense of jangling discord and the poem falls flat. Thank you for making this distinction. I am glad my words found their mark.