Nobody is Reading Poetry

Nobody is reading poetry,
I reiterate in my bed,
my head repelling the pillow
with multiple authorships at stake.
This is the age of ridicule
and trendy trivialities
readily uploaded on the internet.
I sigh and with difficulty
close my reluctant eyelids.

Nobody is reading poetry
which is being bled
at the altar of social medias
that are preoccupied with current affairs,
such as posers,
disasters,
and pointed fingernails.
I think of ailing Muses
desperately awaiting remedies
that resuscitate
in vain.

This Siege

‘This siege,’ I state.
He attempts to interrupt with a piercing gaze.
‘This siege’, I repeat.
He beckons with his forefinger to me to discontinue.
‘This siege has not weakened me,’ looking him in the face.
‘Can’t you see that pressure has not made me yield.
What have you gained from the deaths of my peers,
the crucifixion of my dreams,
and the maiming of my career?’

His features twist with a menace
that he fails to conceal.

‘Intimidation and blackmail are not the way,
to win people over to the implementation of your ideals.
What’s so successful about your enterprise,
a fraternity of slaves,
whose loyalty is enjoined
by subtle threats and fear?
What a waste!’

Earthquake Tremors

They aim at that part of the brain
that maintains balance and equilibrium
and make the strings of hearts vibrate
to its contagious electricity.

I sway tremulous like a half-cut tree
on the onset of an eternal delirium.

These headaches I have that harass my day,
the weakened joints,
the lethargic ankles,
the feeble feet that now feel faint
the bewildered eyes,
the reluctant tongue
are my own unacknowledged diagnoses
of the Tremor-Shock Syndrome, TSS.

Dr Susie Gharib is a graduate of the University of Strathclyde with a PhD on the work of D.H. Lawrence. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in Adelaide Literary Magazine, Green Hills Literary Lantern, A New Ulster, Crossways, The Curlew, The Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Ink Pantry, Mad Swirl, Miller’s Pond Poetry Magazine, and Down in the Dirt.

Susie’s first book (adapted for film), Classic Adaptations, includes Charlotte Bronte’s Villette, Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, and D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

You can find more of Susie’s work here on Ink Pantry.