The Journey. by Dennis Moriarty

I have seen you devour pills between
Old episodes of Colombo,
Watched you suck and deflate
The helium balloon.
Now you occupy the space between
The ceiling
And the soft leather chair where I sit.
Your laughing words are borrowed from
The language of insanity.
Raven dark innuendo, the mockery
Of crows delivered by
The serrated edge of your cutting tongue.
I watch you soar, looking for cracks
In the ceiling,
Cracks through which you might enter
And discover
That other worldly acceptance you so
Desperately crave.
But you will not find it there among the cobwebs
And faded coving, it will never be there.
I see you retreat, slowly at first, floating like a feather
In the silence that follows the shot gun's blast.
You pick up speed, falling, nose diving
Through the void,
Eventually landing at my feet.
You ask how long you've been away and I answer
With a question of my own;
Was the final destination really worth
The journey after all?

Dennis Moriarty was born in London, England and now lives in Wales. Married with five grown up offspring Dennis likes walking the dog in the mountains, reading and writing.
In 2017 he won the Blackwater poetry competition and went to county Cork in Ireland to read his work at the international poetry festival. Dennis has had poems featured in many publications including Blue nib, Our poetry archive, Setu bilingual, The passage between and others.