Shelby-Ray Mullins

That July!

Did you ever see a lighter sky

than the one cast July?

The blue was oh-so light and quaint,

I thought it was about to faint!

Picnic breeze, napping ease,

afternoons such as these;

dreaming through warm car rides

in July; it's heat's arcadian. 

Like a haze, summer air 

and boredom rays

are the gems that are these days. 

Where will they rest?

My heart, my memory's locket,

all nostalgia, though I can't yet spot it,

I know I'll be glad once I've got it. 

That July, 

don't pass me by!

Free Verse

October

October changed me in a way

that stole my breath, and 

tries to steal my heart away, now

eternally I fight against it.

With every blushing

yawn of aurora

I hear its yearning song; 

I hear the echo of my name. 

The calling of the Hunter's moon is earnest,

never thinking, 

only wanting and will

never fade. 

The brisk and longing 

fingers of October ever linger,

and my soul is left aching 

to taste what I once felt were

glowing nights and

candy sweet days again. 

Free Verse

Knocking on a Hollow Heart

Your heart starts with a door.

It stands taller than the sky

and inside its empty and cold.

If I'm knocking on a hollow heart,

where did the feeling start?

Hand me a rose, or don't,

it will be nothing more to me

than all the other heartaches who have come before.

You, who value all the thorns in roses

but can never give me more than those

and closed doors. 

Free Verse

All That it Was

All that it was

is lost at sea. 

The memories have sunken under

years and years.

They are with all the ocean's

other shipwrecks.

On the shore,

it should be freeing,

but I'm less free

and more so stranded

while waves thunder towards me,

again and again. 

On the island, I bury the 

unspoken goodbyes.

I bottle the tears, burn the remnants.

I give my queries to the sky

and whisper, "Why?" to the wind

as though it would know,

but no,

wind only knows to turn the waves,

and so, the question is carried out to sea. 

Free Verse