Rising It’s too loud in this cacophonic cave echoing with old lovers’ cries too bright with the light of passing smiles, the dazed glory of dazzle, all razzle and righteousness, arms and legs of a thousand bodies thrashing against Despair. The journeys taken, Never taken, wrong turns Fording mountains to The inner realms The outer realms Realms, a silver thread Straining and pulling Tight, all gossamer, all Shiny with light. Below, the vibrating undercurrent Of eternal sweetness, Thrum of hummingbird wings, Morning breeze ruffling the curtains, A pie cooling on the ledge. The battle will be fought And refought –no winners, only Scarred participants Dragging themselves up, Rising to live and fight Another day.
Margo McCall‘s short stories have appeared in Pacific Review, Heliotrope, In*tense, Sidewalks, Rockhurst Review, Toasted Cheese, and other journals. Her nonfiction has appeared in Herizons, Lifeboat: A Journal of Memoir, Pilgrimage, the Los Angeles Times, and a variety of other publications. A graduate of the M.A. creative writing program at California State University Northridge, she lives in the port town of Long Beach, California. For more information, visit http://www.margomccall.com.
Amethyst Review 