Scratched walls surround barren rooms
Where quaint memories dwell
Just beyond the precipice of reality,

But maternal associations
Did consume any sense of peace
Where assassinated were children different,

Where assumptions gave rise to conjecture
And emotional allergies burdensome,
Where nothing could fulfil

The mundane hopes
That rested so far below capabilities
Vast and untempered,

Much like this surreal world untethered
And painted in humors decayed
And plucked from thin lines

Of tight bound dreams contrived
And molded into a collection
Of falsehoods rotten and mischievous,

Now yearning to reach for paths distant
Where only jarred memories of collapsed beds
And manic drives on highways

Mysterious and unruly remain
Where crimson rivers give rise
To saline streams that ask

Why a child
Must bear witness to childhood trauma
So destructive, and other worldly.

Anthony is a mixed-race poet & writer whose work tends to focus on social inequality throughout late-modern society. Anthony travels frequently and has spent most of his life in Kuwait jostling between the UK & America. Anthony’s work has been published 55 times. Anthony has 1 published chapbook titled ‘The Great Northern Journey’. Twitter/Instagram: @anthony64120