by Laura Kayne
She sits in the shadows
Hiding away from the world,
Haunted by the darkness she has seen.
As pale and helpless
As a heroine in a film noir
Fragile and breaking.
A black cat weaves its way
Around her crossed legs,
Meows unheard into the empty night.
A bottle stands on the table
A chipped glass its only companion,
Amber liquid almost vanished.
Dawn breaks, unseen
As she stares ahead,
Doesn’t feel the sunlight on her body.
She pulls the fleeting shadows closer,
Like a favourite coat against the onslaught of day
And turns her face from warmth.
She is the heroine in her own film noir,
Plays her part and says her lines,
Portrays elegant tragedy with imagined grace.
Eventually she fades into the background,
As the darkness shrinks
And the closing credits roll.
Laura Kayne has had poems published in Aesthetica and The New Writer magazines as well as online at Poetry Kit, Mosaic Minds and The Recasant.
The Pygmy Giant 
#1 by fiona campbell on July 11, 2009 - 7:43 am
this stayed with me long after i read it, left me wondering about her and her life, good writing and i liked the image of her staring unseeing when the day began, a powerful poem.