7.15.2014

Life's Disrobing


Your sadness like an anchor falls
It crashes 'round the courthouse halls
Your legs mired; your eyes red and pleading
You fear today’s your final meeting

Back at home, the phone rings with abandon
Your pulse races; it moves in tandem
With each whisper between them...and each denunciation
You cry in woeful supplication

Your daughter but a room away
Your son off to a friend’s to play
“I’m leaving,” his father's tone unsympathetic, callous
“Daddy,” he shouts, “you’re supposed to love us!”

Your terror launched by life’s disrobing
Will this be your complete unfolding
This, his implausible but palpable retreat
Your heart lumbered by love’s defeat
His steps hasten down desperation’s path
Is this midlife crisis’ wrath?

You want to scream for him to hear
Don’t regret this time, this day, this year
Don’t cause all that’s been sweet to sour
Please, don’t let this be our goodbye hour

Don’t leave me in this tormented place
Unlock this cage of lost embrace
Shed folly's shelter; and wrongs amend
Treat me like your cherished friend

By Rachel A. Elovitz, July 15, 2014

6.12.2014

The Tug of Souls

Matrimonially extracted from Grace
Two souls' arms steadfast, embrace
Cloaked in comfort, foreheads converged,
Hands intertwined and traditions merged

United by covenant in Goodness’ presence
In the shadow of doubt and piercing reticence
Promises pledged, alas unrequited
Lies greedily tendered, trust now subsided

Faith dissolved in rile and segregation
In opposition hope shouts for remediation
Solace at last sought in legal jargon
Relief partial, hearts still hardened

Liberation gained in guided dissolution
In loss’ sting there is no absolution
Decisions armored, yet imprudently strategized
Love remembers what fate never realized

By Rachel Elovitz, Feb 2011


A Tale of Two Sisters

This offering was originally a response to my sister - after reading a poem she wrote about my nieces.  It is an ode to them with a wish that what they share will permeate the walls of the Juvenile Court and the families who enter there.


Bereft of slumber and of sluggish hand
On your poetic tender my eyes humbly land

To read a tale of two sisters, dissimilarly inclined
One a whirling dervish, one bookishly sublime

Of their doting alliance and its innate blisters
After all…these two are sisters

In each there is empathy, ability, and light
In each there is humility, compassion, and insight

To merit their love and yield their affection
Is a testament to the recipient - absent dialogue, sans question

They are the progeny of generations of goodness - and yes, fallibility
But of history’s lessons they are the auspicious beneficiaries

And should peace ever seem at one's insufferable distance
Her sister will be there to mitigate resistance

No doubt should lie in this final proffer
That in their disparate manner, they are bonded forever

By Rachel Elovitz, Feb 2011



Wonderland Lost

There is no Cinderella 
Peter Pan is grown
That doesn’t keep him sober
Nor does it keep him home

Old King Cole’s not so merry
His wife’s the Wicked Witch
Red Riding Hood seeks shelter
From her wrath - and her switch

Wonderland is a wasteland
The Giving Tree a stump
Little Bo Peep’s playground
Is a needle-infested dump

Harold grabs his purple crayon
And draws Jonah’s whale
In its belly he finds his haven
A compulsory fairy-tale


By Rachel Elovitz, Feb 2011



6.09.2014

Truth's Lodging

For those grieving the loss of a marriage, the end of a cherished relationship, and the absence of answers


Forego ardent protest and creative supplication 
Relying on inference - a fool's condemnation

Discard diffidence, perception's jaded visor
Obscurity and darkness, veracity's quagmire

Truth's breath is transparent, impervious to contagion
Armored against malice and miscalculation

Empathy and insight born of its womb 
In its embrace, deceit finds its tomb 

To pursue its lodging, a futile expedition
Mourning its absence, gratuitous self-sedition

In the breast of its seeker – therein ends the quest 
Its province ubiquitous; its form manifest
                                                        

Originally printed on Waxing Lyrical on February 5, 2011

This Second

An Ode to Legal Guardians and Adoptive Parents




Her dance is mercifully blissful
Her laughter, heaven’s cackle  
A sparse apartment for seven
Her enchanted, cherubim castle

Of her father’s crime she’s clueless
She knows not her Mother’s love - or slaughter
The voices she hears each morning
Say that she’s her Aunt and Uncle’s daughter

Her brother tenderly takes her hand
As he opens a Courtroom door
He remembers all too well
The life they had before

His manner is always courteous
His speech, a rejection of his sorrow
For him the journey begins this second
Not yesterday, not tomorrow

From the bench a ruling
Formality these children cannot comprehend
They sit quietly at a table
Mom and Dad at either end

That their parents did not give them birth
Merits zero contemplation
That they are loved and nurtured
Is their soul consideration

By Rachel Elovitz
Originally printed on February 10, 2011, on Waxing Lyrical at 
http://rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com/

6.05.2014

Judgment's Lobby (aka Heaven Imagined)

Yonder bail and creed
Mislaid derision; cutting mockery
Gone judicial indecision  
Marital mayhem and cacophony 

Trespass tarries onward
Cool malfeasance finds oblivion
Through love's breath, liberal and transparent
Iniquity eagerly wakes contrition

Life's disquiets no longer hobby
Sagacity soars in judgment's lobby
libels unearthed; truth shedding mystery
In this real nocturnal reverie


By Rachel A. Elovitz
June 5, 2014

Application for Amnesty

My train extends a thousand miles
Every boxcar crammed with cargo
Chronicles sealed in steel
I’m carrying 4000 tons
I want desperately to bring this freight to a halt
To get off this monorail
To unbolt the caboose door
Dash down the stairs
And amble up the open tracks
Savoring whatever time I’ve left of this singular journey
Leaving behind the weight of things
The reels of acid that daily revisit
Dissolving my insides
Extinguishing judgment
Pain as pointless as it is poignant
Consuming all that could be
Atonement for naught
Should my sins repeat
Injuring the brakemen, flagmen, ticket collectors - all
Every part of me tarnished and tired
And moving 70 miles an hour
But I can open the brake pipe
Slow this train
Bring it to a stop
Walk off
And wave goodbye 
An application for amnesty 
Before I march forward
My compass northbound
Toward a raging tsunami 
It pours over and through me
Carrying away grime and folly
I gaze over my right shoulder
The train is dazzling in the sun, a radiant red
Its materials are unencumbered
Pages without pain
The train and its cargo vanish inside me
Its ride was mine
But not me
Not anymore


By Rachel A. Elovitz

Originally printed as "Northbound" on Waxing Lyrical at rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com on February 15, 2011 

Accord and Satisfaction

She was stationed at the head 
of a sprawling table
Clad in impartiality
surrounded by 6 empty chairs 
“They’ve mostly arrived,” the Coordinator tells her

Conciliation and empathy were no shows
Resentment and repudiation came early
They marched into the room, 

their steps archetypically discordant

She listened, as barristers bloviated 

and parties postured
She heard - enmity’s voice 

and antipathy’s quiet rage
She watched, the parties’ unsteady hands 

and unmanageable tears

She asked about interests, rather than positions
She probed for common ground – and found it
In the face of an absent child

The discussion turned to him
To his education, his welfare, his access to two parents
Areas of solidarity unearthed – and manifold

She listened, as rigidity crumbled 

and tensions thawed
She heard, the plunge of positions 

and good will’s eruption
And she marveled, as clenched hands released, 

faces brightened, 
and a collaborative future was forged


First published on Waxing Lyrical at rachelaelovitz.blogspot.com/ on March 31, 2011

A Tired Esquire

I could no longer listen
My nerves shredded, screaming
Dear Client, grant my repose!



By Rachel A. Elovitz
May 31, 2014


From Foster to Morrow

She’s barely thirty
Mother to eight - a ninth on the way
She considered birth control
But with whom would she play

One baby’s daddy was murdered
One stays busy planting his seed
He’s indifferent to his son's truancy
And urgent psychological need

One papa is on methadone maintenance
Another's eligible for parole in fifteen
One’s cuddled behind a dumpster
Moans as he sleeps - and wakes with a scream

Three babies’ daddies live pillar to post
Borrowing from Peter - paying Paul late
Their daughters' calls go unanswered
Weekend visits - too difficult to make

We have all that we need
Says the Mother of eight – soon nine
I have my children’s “income”
And get them to school half the time

Yes, their Medicaid has lapsed
And no, I cannot fill their prescriptions
But it was the government’s error
So they can shove their contrition

Send the parenting aid away
My home thrives in disorder
If Your Honor disagrees
Do a pick up Order

Now eight brothers and sisters
Have no reason to roam
They sleep soundly in four beds
Across three foster homes

Like emerging butterflies
Their wings cautiously unfold
They’ve been given tomorrow
Their wingspan yet untold

I can't wait for Mom to see us
Just look at how we've grown
She'll shower us with kisses
And then she'll take us home


First printed as "Emerging Butterflies" on Waxing Lyrical at Elovitz@blogspot.com on April 25, 2011

ODE TO AN INSUFFERABLE ADVOCATE

What are you able to build with your lies  Integrity crumbles; trust withers and dies Your boasts of endowment and feat Beg Karma’...