The world is broken,
a glass bottle smashed on rocks.
I cannot see how
we can repair the damage,
a million shards surround us.


Kindness beckons us;
stupidity, hatred and
plague drown out its voice,
dragging it under the waves
like trash on the beach.


No one notices;
lifeguards are in short supply.
I dive after it,
desperately fighting the tide
and pray for reinforcements.

~Elise Skidmore ©2020

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13 Comments

    1. Oh, thank you so much, Alan. Like so many, I am starting to feel the stress of the constant negativity that surrounds us today. Between the Corvid virus, politics, and the stupidity and hatred that feeds into mankind’s worst nature, things seem pretty bleak, so it’s not surprising that many of us are feeling weighed down and helpless by it all. I always take comfort when I see comments like yours because they remind me that I’m not the only one feeling this way, and that gives me hope to carry on another day.

    1. Thank you, Lisa. It isn’t easy. Sometimes there are just tears and feeling the fragility that if one more thing happens I’ll just break. At times like those, when I sit down to write, I’m very conscious of the fact that there are people who might be concerned about my well being if I don’t word things just so. It’s a fine line when you’re looking for that reinforcement to come along.

        1. It can be sometimes. I often find myself self-censoring because I don’t want anyone thinking I’m suicidal. I just want the madness to stop. (For the record, I am not, even at my most depressed, thinking of suicide.)

  1. I like this one. It encapsulates the helplessness that I think many of us are feeling these days.