12 GROUNDCOVER NEWS POETRY Steal our breath SYDNEY SCHIMMEL Groundcover contributor I’m hardly qualified to talk about this. But I don’t wear sunglasses anymore So we shall begin. They want to steal our breath. They do so over time so when it happens, we do not know it was them. In a world so boundless and abundant we self-impose limitations on infinity Blind to the truth they walk around Seeing only half of the Light we radiate. Those that wear these sunglasses change their perception of what is real We don’t have to live this way. If we just learn to take them off we reveal Light beyond the clouds we were always meant to see We disguise this reality as “normal.” Suffering is normal. Disease and war are normal. This was never our true state Clever to keep truth hidden in plain sight We did not know it was missing. But once in a while . . . We break away and answer our Calling to return to source, unmistakably rooted in loving presence. We care for thinking far too much to accept ourselves into a world our bodies don’t understand We are heavenly in the middle of hell. I finally understand that preacher was right when he told me humanity was broken. Cast his words aside while I cleaned dirty lenses See when one sees the truth, Even a glimpse, it is ripped just as quickly Stardust made we cannot deny our heritage They cannot steal what we have For it can only be taken when we accept who we are. Eloise Hospital archives TOMMY SPAGHETTI Groundcover vendor No. 669 Larceny As spring lies dreaming in her tree top lair Sly summer steals the rosebuds from her hair As summer pins the blossoms to her gown Fall querulous fingers turn them brown As Autumn trails them crumbling in her train Mad winter sweeps them off in gusts of rain And as we watch this wanton swift display The thieving seasons steal our lives away. — S.A. Levitt, Pinky Corner News (1962) This poem was found in the wreckage of Eloise Psychiatric Hospital in the 1980s. It was part of a newsletter published by patients and faculty at Eloise. Not sure who S.A. Levitt was/is, but I memorized this poem 40 years ago. Fire and ice VERONICA SANITATE Groundcover contributor April snow explodes like drunken fireworks, drives at us, devours us in our night drive; claws through the dismal dark tunnel, singling us out, insisting upon existence. Here, in your face, Mr. Mesmer. (He couldn’t master this entrancement or enhance it.) Spellbound, we fall, victims into vortex. Titanic flakes dart at us, then disintegrate, the way sparks of fire consume themselves, dissipate. Flares of snow singe like ice that scalds our skin. Awareness is the thing that makes us gasp or takes the breath away — the way fire or ice can cleanse or exterminate. Sometimes you can decide. APRIL 4, 2025 Defined EJ WILSON Groundcover contributor Female Told what I am Told what I am not Told to smile Lied to Lied about Laid on Used Held back Held down Ignored Dismissed Denied Held hostage Starved Beaten Raped Broken Justified by their belief I am female Copyright 2023
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