In(her) reality
HATE is not…
forgetting what was done,
or forgiving those who did it.
It is not moving on,
nor taking each day at a time,
or trying to find a light in the darkness, that
banishes shadows and chains.
HATE is not…
calm and considered,
nor warm and willing.
It is not letting go,
it feeds on pain, freshly and fiercely
eating away from the inside out
corrosive in its refrain.
HATE is not…
the sweet ripe fruit of love
or reflected honey sunlight.
More, bittersweet calabash,
washed down with sharpness and edge.
Acid soured in the sediment of night,
when sleep runs for cover again.
March 2024
This was written in 8 minutes as an exercise in writing what an emotion is not, rather than what it is, for a poetry workshop I attended in March 2024. I’ve edited it a little since then and renamed it, and sent it in as part of a call for poetry by a student doing a project for a degree – Hannah Scott. She wanted poetry that reflects both negative and positive aspects of mental health and self-identity, and I sent this in as part of that call.
PUBLISHED in the ‘Fragments of an Unquiet Mind: A Poetry and Artwork Anthology‘.