melissaahowells

      Poet's Home             All Poetry       Sign Up!  Login
© 2000-2022 Individual Authors of the Poetry. All rights reserved by authors.   517954 Poems Read.

Search for Poetry

   


Read Poetry
The Petty Player Who Rarely Sleeps

I'd Like A Taste (The Wolf Said)

The Crow Is A Black Bird

When I Start to Bloom

I'd Like To Be Your Shirt (when you wake up in the morning)



All Beings Considered

Words Between Edward And Jane

Nothing's Sadder Than A Rose

The Great Tsunami Of Our Growing Grief written 3/2.2021--retitled 3/14/2021

After Wide Sargasso Sea ( For Those of You Readers Who Have Empathy For the First Mrs. Rochester.)

WAITING ON THE WORLD (March/February 2021 poetry)

Wild and Unraveling

What Must Be

These Hands Exist July 4 2023 rei-edited 7/12/2023

I Am The Color Of Black

The Tide of Your Lies (2019-2023)

How I Wanted Your Pearls 6/24/2023 WRITTEN DIRECTLY TO THE PAGE

Love Wants What Love Wants re-edited 5/31/023

Winter's Been Too Long.... 4/18/2023 (LONGING)

The Dreaming Life ( A Series Of Dream Vignettes)

Like A Small Street Dog Lured In By The Promise Of Meat

This Is What Mermaids Dream Of

At Night, As I Dream of Vampires Who Have No Bad Intentions

And You Will Be Called Ashes As You Leave ( from a dream)

Certainly No Bread 3/16/2022

Someone Send Out A Search Party

THE FAN , AT NIGHT, GIVES GOOD ADVICE completely re-edited, an entirely different poem

What Is The Price For Your Touch? re-editied 5/31/2023

Where Is My Bed With The Pleasing Tree -Lined View(NOW REEDITED)

Oh What Fine Physics (Before Me ,Lies) re-edtited @4/17/2023

If Prejudice Were Dumb And Could Not Speak

THE COMPANY THAT WE KEEP WITH THE ONE WITHIN

More Poetry >>

 
Features

  Sign Guestbook

Read Guestbook

 
   

Don't Breathe 3/17/2021 12:21 AM PST




as a child
tucked into my blankets at night
I'd pick the darker side
of the blanket
to be closest to my skin

I was convinced
it was much warmer
more comforting than
the white side

and nothing could convince me
otherwise

the main comforter tucked between my knees
and the other
--the chenille bedspread
pulled over my head
cloaking me
with only enough space
for a breathing hole

this was exactly how
I slept each night
of my early childhood years
blanketing my fears
of the door that
sometimes opened
in the middle of the night

when the ray of light
from the hallway
slid in
I became
frozen in place
slowing my breathing down
to that of a hibernating
amphibian
who wouldn't rise up out of the earth
until the warming breezes
the zephyrs
arrived and unthawed me
in Spring

my expertise at stillness
was the hinge pin
of everything

my safety
my silence
my sleep

I narcotized
my thoughts
numbed my mind
of what lay
on the other side
of the creaking door
like a stillborn chick
I didn't make one peep

as the child climbed
the ceiling
to be out of the way
of his/her reach
the silencing voice said
the words of the mantra:
please,
don't breathe....
don't breathe.



legal copyright for this poem 3/17/2021/ 12:21 Am PST
AND ALSO FOR THIS POET MELISSA A. HOWELLS
AND ALSO FOR THIS LEGALLY COPYRIGHTED SITE TITLE
MELOO STRAIGHT FROM HER TILT-A-WORLD

RELEASING THE DEMONS OF A PAST--TO SILENCE THEM





Vote for this poem