Julie Stuart

Southport, Merseyside, UK

 

Julie is an amateur poet who has been involved in creating poetry for the better part of 50 years.  She writes technical manuals, marketing information and training courses as part of her working life, and poetry and fiction during her down time.  Her poem Married, was published in the compilation, Time to Reflect in 1997. She is currently undertaking a BA (Hons) in Creative Writing and English Literature with the Open University.

 

Poem completed 17th May 2020

 

A Breath

 

the trauma of you breathing

       in out     in out    

an exhale of improbability

a hitch     a pause     a cannon of waiting

and then the motorized swish of robot sighing

targets the next      gasp of desperation

 

life condensed      into the space of a breath

 

Yesterday

you were expounding on your aspirations

an existence cherished and lodged     inside

a terrace of sound       focused

now     you appear to be

burdened with limbs of rubber     unable to strike a football

or play at silly mid-off

 

outside the window       soundless spring clouds

duel across a blueness of sky

     the breath of their Gods a propellant

directing newcomers to paradise

 

Your face      seizes my reality

continues its unflinching

silent negotiation with Death

unaided

encased     haloed by mechanical dials