[Quarantine]

Today I'm sharing a poem I wrote in 2005 with you.  It was inspired by a combination of past images and feelings brought on by something said to me that pushed a button that was only slightly related to what they were referring to.

I am including a link to an audio of me reciting this poem with Acidplanet artist Phreniq's music and mix.  You will need to listen to the audio to understand why I chose the accompanying photo.  On Acidplanet there is an audio of fellow poet, Max Reif, reading this poem.  His interpretation is interesting and motivated me to start recording my poems. 

In the past, some people felt compelled to pull out their dictionaries - including family members and some of my fellow poets.

photo by AVR

[Quarantine] AVR & Phreniq

[QUARANTINE]

As she stood on the shore

Feeling the wind whip the waves

An angry frenzy forming white caps

On the lake - mimicking

Making a mockery

Of the turmoil in her soul

The perception of being

Quarantined - intensified

Confined to an inclement

Compartment, no bigger than

Necessary to contain

Her essence - her autocracy

Secluded - desperate

In her struggle to break through

Debilitating isolation

She cried out for compassion

For freedom from exclusion

Forced on her by foreign

Exigencies, by external

Limitations - constraints

Of increasingly diminishing

Pockets of time and seeming

Disinterest in her well being

By her captor – he who had

Purported to love her

© Alice Vedral Rivera - 2005