M.K. Lee's Blog: Telling Tales, page 113

A Childish Sulk

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“Greg.”

No response.

Eric humphed under his breath; he hated it when Greg was sulking with him, whether he had provoked him or not.

Okay, so perhaps this time the sulking was well and truly earned. But that didn’t mean that Eric wouldn’t try and wheedle his way back into Greg’s good books. He didn’t enjoy being out of them even for a minute.

“Please, Greg?”

Greg’s posture remained stiff even as he hunched over the laptop at the table looking engrossed in whatever it was he was doing.

Eric st...

Mountain out of a molehill

I’ve made a mountain out of a molehill.
You were never more than a pleasant, undulating view.
Less misadventure, more sunny day out;
Why can’t I navigate to knowing that to be true?

When you make a mountain out of a molehill,
You see unscalable rock faces instead of single grass blades.
You tell yourself, one step away is all it will take,
And yet they’re the backdrop shadowing over all of your days.

We were no mountain made out of a molehill.
I am no treasured pebble, more accidental find.
W...

False Awakening

False awakening
Is an evil trick of the mind.
You wake from dreaming only to find
You are still dreaming.
So, you let yourself be lured back
Into a place where there is no lack
Of all the things you need.
Safety. Shelter. A sense of self.
When you wake, believing this to be true,
New courage washes over you,
Like you really could be someone else.
Someone remarkable,
Something far too good to be true.
Someone so very, very far from you.
False awakenings build hope where they have no right to.

...

Waiting For The Right Time

It isn’t fair, Evan thinks, staring down at Tom laid pristine white in a hospital bed, willing himself to concentrate on the slightest evidence of his chest rising up and down. Tom’s the baby of the family, eight years younger than Evan is himself, and all Evan can think staring down at him then, is that he’s failed him for letting this happen.

It’s beyond not fair, he adds, eyes closing in anguish at the sight of the apparatus set around the head of that bed, proof that Tom’s only there beca...

To Come

The soft white satin claims my skin for hell,
Blistering, seeping, tissue paper thin.
Victory is yours, triumphant beauty.
Phthonus my companion, partner in sin.

Newcastle serenades my every nightmare,
Shattering dreams, wishes, my blown-glass heart.
This mask won’t betray the breaking within.
Secrets confined. Always. Escape plans thwart.

Silence speaks volumes. Words, from you? I?
Never. Dusted away, unacknowledged. Safe.
Comfort? Only one. The truth realised now:
Be strong. Deny. Hold tear...

Human

When you burned the building down to the ground,
Did you forget there were people inside too?
Or in your diluted, polluted view of the world,
Had they somehow ceased to be human to you?

Consider this. Were they mere farmyard animals,
You would have been guilty of committing slaughter.
But they weren’t. They were people, whole, like you and me.
Father. Brother. Sister. Mother. Son. Daughter.

How dare you believe yourself better, and claim righteousness.
Thou shalt not kill is more than command...

Blue grey

So this is where I sit

To remind myself to forget you.

I couldn’t go much further South

And there’s miles of North between us two.

But still, I carry you like Talisman,

Like these shale pebbles beneath my feet on blue grey sand.

Here I sit, in my stone-formed chair,

Staring out into the sea

Attempting thoughts of clarity.

Fingers caress undulations of time,

Layers compressed by detritus of life

Into smooth, creamy blue grey shale.

Each peak and trough soft,

Shaped through histories of rain an...

I Have To Let You Go

I have to let you go.
You’ve never known for this to be but you have such control of me
I have to let go. Be free.
You’ll never feel the way I do.
I know this, seen this, over again, but, scared of the outcome, remain
Stranded, in limbo, lost. The same.
I once existed without you in my world.
My heart shatters at the thought, pounds against my chest, fighting what’s best
For me. It allows for no rest.
It fears the cold and silence
That will descend without you making it race, slowing to icy p...

Pour

Empty yourself into me and I’ll not spill a drop.
No part of you will go to waste.
You would fill me, overflowing, with no desire or will to stop,
And I wouldn’t pull back: I am mesmerised, imagining your embrace.
You pace me, sparkle for sparkle, like gemstones, dazzling,
We glint in sunlight, moonlight, by candle flame,
No other sensation could ever replace the feeling you bring,
There is no way to enhance your steady frame.
While you contain all that’s good within,
I let it evaporate into...

The Life On Hold

What are you achieving there,
Putting your life on hold?
Staring at the ceiling bare,
For which you’ll gain no Gold.
If what makes you happy
Is what you already have,
Perhaps this is all you can be –
Embrace the small, and live.
Something keeps you from moving
And that can only be you.
If not, what are you proving?
Give in. Give up. Make do.
I suspect though, that’s not the case,
And through this mirror, judge.
There’s wanting carved into your face,
And yet. You do not budge.
You do not flinc...