Poems—Lynn White

Lynn White lives in north Wales. Her work is influenced by issues of social justice and events, places and people she has known or imagined. She is especially interested in exploring the boundaries of dream, fantasy and reality. She has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net and a Rhysling Award. Find Lynn at: https://lynnwhitepoetry.blogspot.com and https://www.facebook.com/Lynn-White-Poetry-1603675983213077/

Midas Touch

The sorcerers and scientists

of past times

experimented with their powders 

dissolved them,

fired them up

in their laboratories.

searching for the glows and gleams

from base metal,

the Midas touch

that would create the riches of gold

for them.

They never found it.

Now, the sorcerers and scientists

have discovered how

to dig deeper,

scrape harder

and stand by while

we dig and scrape for them.

And watch the gold flow,

watch it pour

like magic

making wrinkles and scars

suffocating our skin.

First published in Visual Verse, June 2018

Suffocated

In this society

of masks and miasmas

we are allowing ourselves 

to be suffocated

with pillows of power

and prejudice,

hardly hidden,

in the institutions

we thought would protect us all.

We have to do something.

We know we must do something.

So we put on our mask

carefully

to protect

ourselves. 

We know 

we are all 

George Floyd

potentially

later or sooner.

And we know

we are all his killers

potentially

later or sooner

behind the mask.

First published in Oddball, September 2020

All That Glitter

It glitters

like gold.

But is it

gold

or base

metal

being worked on

by an alchemist..

undergoing

transformation,

perhaps

with a touch

of magic,

with an elixir

of immortality,

an illusion.

Or perhaps

base oil

transformed

to

sparkly

plastic glitter

with

all too real

immortality.

Glittering,

littering

with

everlasting life,

all that glitter.

First published in Silver Apples, Issue 10, 2018