If I Forget

If I forget you, beauty,
if I forget the touch
of your breath upon
my cheek

If I forget you, beauty,
the glint of life
within your eyes

Send me
wind and rain
send me newly born
leaves, baby green

If I forget you,
if some yet
steals my heart
and turns it to stone

Send me blue black skies,
stars that sparkle
with knives
Send your wind and rain
thunder and lightning
Chase me
with rainbows.

---

Mercy

I murdered you today.
It was for your own good.
I pressed the softest
couch pillow
over your
face gently,
so gently.

My only selfish motive,
the heartbreak and rage
of watching
you suffer
month after
month.

You did not fight or struggle,
and when I lifted the pillow
three seconds later, I told you

you are dead now.

Thanks, you said,
gently sarcastic.

I’m not worried, I said.
It was a mercy killing.

---

Untitled

My feet crunch on the ash and cinders
of my end, this world’s end.
I walk as though I am still alive
as though this world still lives
and breathes, apparent life
rushes everywhere footed
on cinder and ash.
My desperation sees yours,
yours sees mine, we
say nothing, to speak
to it raises only blame
and pointless effort. What
will be born is beyond
our control, what will
survive the birth pangs
refuses to be named.

---

Susy Crandall has been published in the Fixed and Free Anthology in 2011, 2015, and 2018.  She has also been published in Adobe Walls and the Mas Tequila Review.  She still writes the occasional poem when the frenzy seizes her.