balancing bottles
&
i almost hit a deer this morning
Mervyn Seivwright Poetry
Balancing Bottles
Not able to remember
my mum’s number of bottles
eighteen, twenty-six
or more with a prism
of colors and dimensions.
Essential schedule with alarms
towards chess placement
for the pivotal bottles
of medicine, now
the framework of her
life. Her swimming
in after-commercial
side effects affecting her
physical state. Body living
a constant shivering
lacking steady motion.
At forty-four years
of life her motions
mirrored the elderly,
lacking wrinkles on her
face, focusing to organize
these bottles, an army supply
for war. My mother dreaming
for an embrace from her
new kidney to intertwine
in cellular partnership
understanding these bottles
were the glue. I, only
able to be her steady hand
piecing the puzzle
of these bottles until
the glue in her would
stick no more.
I Almost Hit a Deer This Morning
Bambi or mate,
before horns
before fertility
was scratching
on the sleek street
in front of me.
on my way to the hospital.
I was being plugged
for blood samples
at my half century
check-up, feeling
fragile, lost
in the Atari game
Adventure, searching
in darkness for a secret
door of what my body
is doing inside,
unknown growths,
unchecked holes
from too much acid
due to unhealthy choices,
foreign fiends hitchhiking
within my membranes,
dams in my bloodlines
freezing thoughts, dripping forgetfulness.
The deer froze.
I slowed down
letting the dark-red-coated deer
scatter across
the mountain vein,
slipping the hind legs,
skating on hooves
to catch its balance
on the slanted road.
Mervyn Seivwright writes to balance social consciousness & poetry craft for humane growth. A nomad from a Jamaican family, he was born in London, England, left for America at age 10, and now resides in Schopp, Germany. His performance poetry highlights include events in nine countries, with features at The Jazz Café, & as a finalist at the UK’s Word-for-Word National Poetry Slam. Mervyn completed a writing MFA at Spalding University and has appeared in AGNI, American Journal of Poetry, Salamander Magazine, African American Review, and 46 other journals across six countries, receiving recognition as a 2021 Pushcart Nominee & Voices Israel's Rose Ruben Poetry Competition Honorable-Mention. He has a pending collection due in Autumn 2023 through Broken Sleep Books. Link: https://www.clippings.me/mervynseivwright.