Saturday, 28 December 2024

28th December 2024

 



dark night

walking home after jiu-jitsu

confidence


© Rachel Green December 2024


the woman I walked past was eating chips

and barely forty winters old, and yet

she had a face to launch a thousand ships

with broken nose and pockmarked skin and set

her mouth in such a steely line, projects

a "fuck off" vibe round her like a shield

to dissuade conversation and reject

compassion for her fate in life and yield

no charity. She holds her carriage proud

and looks me in the eye: a challenge met;

for which I offer no response aloud

but an internal voice with comfort set:

    I have no need to bear this soul a grudge

    my life was hard but who am I to judge?


© Rachel Green December 2024


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