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Best Poems From
ABBI VAN DEN BERG
(6 November 1980)
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5.
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No backstage pass
I locked the door
but you still found your way in
like a groupie, flirting her way
past security into the backstage area
at a Whitesnake concert
but instead of raging
at this invasion
and retreating to a quiet corner within
myself,
I let you in,
jugular exposed like a
cat sleeping, belly-bared believing
that rather than ripping out
my entrails with your pointed teeth
that you would caress my
naked flesh
But don't think
because you charmed the heavies
that you may come
and go as you please.
You opened the door
but I still hold the keys.
Abbi van den Berg
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6.
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O'Neill's
This moment of amusement
you're getting from your act
of valour
isn't nearly as amusing to me
because this incident that defies belief
is not an anecdote
It is my life
And although my Bridget Jones style
fumblings make wonderful
stories to tell your court,
I wake up next to them
every morning
So stop encouraging me falsely
and make your own movie
Abbi van den Berg
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7.
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Rehab is for quitters
Please, please
dont give me a spade
because I will dig a hole with it
and dont give me a mountain
of affection
because I will only bury myself in it
dont be kind to me
because I am unable to appreciate it
dont accept me the way I am
because I will point out
all my faults ad nauseam
to try and convince you
that I am unworthy
dont be generous or sweet or gentle
because I have been damaged so badly
that my withered spirit
only understands pain
dont climb over the barbed wire fence
of my bitterness
because I can build a new one
faster than you can tear it down
And please, please dont love me
because I cant bear the fact
that I know I will hurt you
But above all
Please
please
dont
leave me
Because I couldnt bear to live another day without you
It is only in the whirlwind of this
horror that I have created
that I realise how you have helped me to heal
Abbi van den Berg
Read more: pain poems
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8.
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Roadkill
While walking home from work one day
in the rain
I encountered a lump of mutilated flesh
on the side of the road
although I should have looked away
I marvelled at the glossy sheen of the membrane
surrounding it and watched the
last drops of living blood ooze
syrupy out of its crushed ventricles.
The blackened sting of the bits of gravel
around into its spongy
processed strawberry yoghurt pink
blood-drained
muscle
made me wince with an all too recent tenderness
and as I lifted my boot to nudge it out of my way
I saw something just a little too familiar
in the edges of its shape
so I looked down at the craterous wound in my chest
and realised it was my heart
still lying
mashed into the tar
where youre thrown it, crushed it
when you left me
(12-01-2005)
Abbi van den Berg
Read more: pink poems, work poems, rain poems, home poems, heart poems, wind poems
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