Gooseberries - A Poem by Clare Baldwin and Chloe Beech
Created | Updated Feb 23, 2002
Now the yellow gooseberries are ripening
And we shall go home once more.
Once we were the rich,
Now we are urchins,
Barefooted children with no roots.
We are free.
Darkness seeps from every crevice
And seeks to fill us with its intoxicating liquor.
Oh, to submit to the engulfing strength!
To be swallowed and sealed by the sensuous lips!
The slippery slopes of darkness beckon
And draw us to the primeval call.
Oh cruel seductress!
Your velvet dress sweeps and flows on your nubile form,
Seemingly innocent, it overwhelms our senses
And tumbles around us, smothering and caressing.
The darkness clasps and binds our ankles
With poison ivy chains
And we are locked in its devouring embrace.
But yet we cannot yield.
As the trees and flowers of the earth
Grow up through the suffocating soil,
So our free souls may pierce the skies
And combine with the encompassing purity of light.
Though the jaws of darkness lock our ankles,
Our fingertips seek the realms beyond the tempestuous clouds.
The phosphorescent beauty of that to which we aspire
Vanquishes the oppression of our minds
And purges the evil in our hearts.
Remove the obliterating venom
That crushes our souls and poisons our thoughts!
Fill us with the dazzling sunrise of new life!
Cleanse us now, and elevate us
To the immense heights of nirvana!
We are free.
Drawn to the darkness, allured to the light.
We are free, but we are torn.
The raging turmoil of our souls tosses us back and forth,
Light to dark,
Good to evil,
Like a small boat on the vast ocean of doubt.
The waves of uncertainty wash over us,
Dragging us under, throwing us up.
Now the freedom that we sought so long,
For which we abandoned our security,
Is our tormentor.
How we long for the safe comfort of our home!
It is too much for our materialistic minds to bear.
The choices overwhelm us.
One side draws us on while the other pulls us back,
Yet neither can take our whole.
Instead, we are divided and devoured.
But we are tired now.
Freedom is too hard to bear.
We shall go home once more
Where we can rest among the ripening gooseberries.
Click here for the sillier entry with added colour and smileys!
