Poem submission by Birgitta Abimbola Heikka

[Birgitta Abimbola Heikka]

Hunched House

 

Across the street she stood, as if balanced on crutches

--a body with members missing.

By the window holding a candle, I see a woman, lean

of deportment disciplined

Out of nowhere appeared a girl by her side  

confounding me for from the outside

no door was visible leading to the lone room. The girl whispers

in the elder’s ear and together, the candle they light.

Under the lamppost in semi darkness, I recall the journey

that should have taken no more than half a day

Waiting for the bus at the station, basins of water

poured from the sky mixing with the sun, creating

a medley of blinding rays

When a bus staggered by, it’s destination was a blur

but I hopped on, hoping it went my way.

 

Onto the highway, the driver propelled the bus

like a javelin thrown with no direction

Weaving in and out of lanes in the glazed rain     

When my exit came, he did not turn but kept going straight

 In panic, from my seat I rose and demanded he stop and let me off

But the deranged driver said I could not get off half way

and had to ride all the way!

 

He drove and drove till the highway came to an end

I found myself in a strange, cold land

where bushes of thorns grew by the wayside and

reptiles with skins of iron crawled everywhere

I shivered from the cold while the sky grew dark and darker

till I became a captive in its lair 

The light was turned on inside the bus by the devious driver

just before being let off across the street from this body peculiar.

 

Poem was formerly published under the title Journey with The Dissolute Driver on poem hunter but has been deleted.  I chose it because it reflects time and space. 

Birgitta. 

-- through google no poem (nor lines of it) can be found: PH did not copy the text elsewhere. For this reason it can be accepted --