Paul Tristram- Three Poems

When The Ballad’s Taken Wrong

 
The freeze sets in
takes over and controls.
Feeling rises puddle depth.
Sincerity is overturned.
Creativity cuts its own throat
with the pen it once used
so lovingly and the waiting
empty pages stay empty,
shuddering like virgins
without a chance or hope
of becoming anything else.

© Paul Tristram 2008

Published in Decanto, 33rd Issue, February 2008

The 3 Of Swords

It is war but there can
be no surrender.
See treachery and betrayal,
with blood dripping fingers
pointing straight at you.
Disunion as far as the
straining eyes can see.
Strife as sharp as a knife,
coming from all directions.
The hatred and anger
with the force of
stampeding horses,
feel the power of
their conviction
and mirror it all back.
Stay directed through
the chaos and ride
through this nightmare
and out onto the other side.
Know that victory
will be counted
not by the number of scars
that they give you.
But by the amount of dignity
that they do not take away.
It’s happening, get on with it.

© Paul Tristram 2007

Published in Decanto, 32nd Issue, December 2007

Still Nothing

Still nothing eases it,
dulls the edge,
makes it easier to swallow.
It is there, always
like a childhood memory
you cannot shake off.
Like that one about the swing
which hit him in the teeth
and you kicked him
because his crying annoyed you
and still does.
It’s all just a link in the chain,
ever growing and following you,
you’ll never shake it off
and nothing will still it.

© Paul Tristram 2006

Published in Sarasvati, Issue 28, May/June 2013



Paul Tristram is a Welsh writer who has poems, short stories and sketches published in many publications around the world, he yearns to tattoo porcelain bridesmaids instead of digging empty graves for innocence at midnight, this too may pass, yet.