Illusion

By ELIN LEWIS

 

Frozen, you finger the pills

like a rosary.

Clutched close,

chucked up to your chin.

Shivering like a star-string.

 

A silver drop bombs towards you;

bloated with royalty,

exploding on a whitened cheek.

 

You lift your hands in worship.

Hysterical hands,

clawing at the richness of feeling,

feet dancing on the fanatical flood.

Your head tilts back,

guzzling glittering elixir

down that ruby throat.

 

But the silver rain cuts quick,

And stars explode in ebony.

 

The Kingdom is breached!

The vision of sky

fractures, fractures...

And the immortal brights dissolve into

Nothingness.

And the illusion is eclipsed like a sun.

 

In the dark,

the broken rosary falls from forlorn fingers,

now nothing but dull beads,

scattered on a hard floor.

 

And day,

day comes with swift severity,

screaming like a maniac.

 

 

‘Illusion’ was highly commended in The Psychiatry Research Trust Poetry Competition 2012.

 

About the poet

 

Elin Lewis has had her work published in numerous Forward Poetry anthologies and at the online poetry magazine, The Pygmy Giant. In 2012, she won the adult category in the Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival Poetry Competition and was consequently published in the competition’s anthology, Words Paint Pictures.

 

Gold / Illusion / The Poltergeist / Massacre in Houla / Fish