Three poems by A.J. Huffman

White Shadows

Desire is the first step
to destruction.
Its light is unreality.
All shining and golden.
But a touch reveals
the perpetual blackness underneath.
And it sticks to your mind
like glue.
Eating the corners
of your memories.
Until they become hard enough
for your eyes to recognize.
They are your pain.
And they will keep you.
Sane.
And shaded.
From the path
you don’t belong on.

——————–

Pure Utility

You hate me
because I am not beautiful.
Not the chosen reflection
your eyes have become
accustomed to.
And yet you agree
to take my hand
to your lips.
Drinking
a chalice of blood
from the very veins
you continue to despise.

You force a smile.
Continuing to play.
A perfect part,
you feel anyway,
wasted
on the broken instrument
I have become.
Knowing all the while
that I will bend
in the end.
And grant you
that one more step
up.
Into the night
you need.
Up.
Into that burning pedestal
you demand.

——————

One Enemy Inside of Many

I watch the faces move past me.
And I know I should be sad.
The changes.
The numbers.
They’re signs
of something.
Irrationally, I label it
maturity.
But I know it’s something else.
Something ugly.
Inside.
A different face.
Larger
and darker.
And still the only one.

————————-

© A.J. Huffman 2011

A.J. Huffman is a poet and freelance writer in Daytona Beach, Florida.  She has previously published her work in literary journals, in the U.K. as well as America, such as Avon Literary Intelligencer, Eastern Rainbow, Medicinal Purposes Literary Review, The Intercultural Writer’s Review, Icon, Writer’s Gazette, and The Penwood Review.