Read Poem: MINE by Lawrence Plofker

There’s a fundamental understanding
Within any art form that you are bearing
The entirety of yourself in your piece;

To throw your organs on the canvas
Or let your veins make music
Or grip the pen so tightly that words ooze out

Like pus from an infected wound
And that this will be cleansing
And the fervor from this endeavor will cauterize

But there are so many nights, too many
It feels like, where my muscles are banshees
Screeching for me to stop Just stop

Because I’m pushing that fire into a tiny lantern
So it can light my way as I raise the pickaxe again
And throw myself into digging deeper and deeper

To the point where I don’t know where the soot ends
And my sweat begins and all I can see is obsidian blackness
That I just want to carve through at some point in this life

I want to find those gems
I think through gritted teeth
As the canary merrily cheeps

I want to blow the dust off emeralds so I can see better
And find a ruby the size of my fist
That pulses with a familiar cadence

So I can open up my chest like a lunchbox
And trade it for my heart: serving it to the earth
For others to find if they decided to mine one day

My heart is both down in that mine
And twinkling, here, on the surface
And I’m still figuring out what that means

As I wash away the grime
And the heat relaxes my muscles
And the canary sings in the corner

Author: poetryfest

Submit your Poetry to the Festival. Three Options: 1) To post. 2) To have performed by an actor 3) To be made into a film. View all posts by poetryfest