Joanna Hamilton

The whistle blowing in the night
The cargo whispers silently
Death closing in around them
Freedom growing nearer
...

When my life has ended,
Remember my promise to stay with you always
For your life will just begin
...

There are no words for this
this aching, groaning, growling, moaning
feeling inside
like everything is frozen solid
...

I want to be remembered
Long after I’m gone
Not as a student
A philosopher, or a writer…
...

You thought you could keep me here,
hold me back,
but you're wrong.
I’m gone,
...

Before the bombs,
Before the guns,
Before the death dealers came
...

The walls crumble
The windows shatter
The doors fall as their guards
Leak life on to the floor
...

Canoes? All right then
Shall we go canoeing…or kayaking?
Shall we go?
We shall go canoeing
...

The garden sweet with new flower smells
The air gentle with new morning sighs
The ground soft with tears pooled in wells
As they fall silently from the skies
...

Words
Caged up in my
Brain
As birds in a too small
...

And they won’t stop coming
this onslaught of verbs,
conjunctions, expletives,
adjectives, transferred epithets
...

Cold wind blowing
Birds chirping
Trees dancing
Life everlasting
...

See that flag?
The one with the stripes,
The one with the stars,
The one with the bullet holes?
...

My name you ask is
Unimportant
My story you seek is
Untold
...

I am of no worth

My soul is deprived
My mind is insane
...

A living silence
Roams through the halls
A memory of days passed
I feel the dread creeping
...

It used to be there
In my heart
But now it’s gone
Someone ripped it out
...

Soft whispers in the night
Remind me where I am
A stranger amidst my family
I am not the same
...

Whistles fill the sky
Day and night
We are here
Most will not go back
...

My story I will share with you
But only just a bit
A tiny portion of my life
But you will live in it
...