For this article I decided to combine two original poems that share a common theme of weakness among other things. One focusses on Atlas the titan who is condemned to hold up the weight of the world literally on his shoulders but he thinks he will be able to share it with another. The second poem muses on the idea of the weakness of those around you.

Atlas

His hands

to preoccupied with

holding the world, it’s weight

causing intense pain.

It was she.

She came

every day to his side.

She was just a watcher of the

garden at the bottom of atlas’ hill.

She would look up at him and

see a handsome

man in pain.

The gentle,

strong hands holding

such weight, a punishment for

what she could not see. She saw no

evil, she wanted to help him

with the weight,

so big.

They shared

the world together holding

equal sides to lighten the heavy load.

They stood in equilibrium, each holding a side

with one hand, holding hands with

the other

He let her hold

the whole world, slowly handing

it off to her. She did pretty well, looking

powerful, in control. He felt so proud

to love the girl who could hold up

such a world.

A waver

of hope, she begins to sink,

to crumble. For it is too much for her.

Atlas watches as both his love and the world begin

to fall into the unknown and endless below.

He reaches his hands out but only

the world remains.

He couldn’t catch

his only love.

Instead the world,

his punishment to

hold up high.

Forever alone.

Frozen

Little lines of light delightfully dance across the floor.

Like thousands of bees whizzing around in circles by their hive.

My heart beats in time with the tune of the clock.

The chilled popsicle drips down my fingers, a sticky mess that will cease to exist.

A crash, jarring and sudden, tells me my mother has spilled once more

onto the cold, unrelenting floor.