A need for self protection
more fierce, more essential
than life itself.
The consuming energy of keeping her heart safe.
The waning strength to keep the walls fortified.
To give without receiving.
To live without wanting
A game of survival that she only knew
how to play alone.
© Ali Grimshaw
You chose me
when I couldn’t choose myself.
When I was swimming in darkness,
awash in ink,
blocking out the love.
You remained beside me
when my words didn’t make sense.
You stayed. Listening.
Seeing who I would become
and already was in the moment.
You opened up a new vista
where we stood together,
our backs to the past.
© Ali Grimshaw
Alone is different
than loneliness.
connection, a link, from one to the other.
not trusting, disbelief, an arm’s length away.
impenetrable invisible cushion
keeps me hidden even
when you think I am there.
Will I let you know me?
The jury is still out.
© Ali Grimshaw
My list is overflowing,
letters fall off the page,
some words jump
knowing they will get more attention elsewhere.
Many items tired of being ignored
have started a support group.
finish is used to making friends by now.
Each longs for special alone time with me
eagerly waiting for the big day
the black line drawn
through their middle.
The gold medal of achievement.
© Ali Grimshaw
Without you
he will be an island that I cannot reach
an evolving door
a language untranslatable.
You are the bridge, an extension
carrying my voice to him.
Without you
will the connection be severed?
Just a recorded message
at the other end.
This line is now disconnected.
© Ali Grimshaw
Discovery Challenge – Connection
As he walks away,
the unknown grows inside me,
a tightness inside my chest.
His graduation is a forced exhale and I
breathe in the flight to come.
It was an illusion that he was ever mine,
from the start. He never belonged to me.
I was always ever the warm nest
from which he would someday fly.
Alicia Grimshaw
Dedicated to all of the parents of graduates. Yes, part of your heart is stepping out into the world to touch the lives of others. Let it go. Part of it will stay with you forever. What a privilege to experience this amazing journey of expanding love. Congratulations.
Pulled from sleep by fears of failure.
Stumbling down a hallway of thought.
Was it lack of effort, stubbornness
or a tunnel of perspective with only one exit,
that lead me to this worried space
awake before the sun has risen?
© Ali Grimshaw
flashlight batteries - Ali Grimshaw 