Green gritty eyes
open to peer outside
Hoping for a quiet
chance to speak
from my dark side
The sting of salt
Reminding me of
all the reasons
that I hide / as
ice water seeps
inside my mirage
with a grain of sand
Washing in like a
small gray thought
pushing & pulling
agitating my fading
camouflage yet I
Fight again against
the urge to close
As bright heat
wraps around me
Sifting inside like a
sudden spark of
blinding insight
against my taught
stubbornness –
Lost urgency rises
As I can no longer
hold – my – breath
This shell now dry
cracks back – as
a deep low sigh
slips from my
dry lips & echoes
like high tide against
eroding sea walls &
a pearlescent vibrato
shatters the silence
Gretchen Leary 2013
Gretchen Leary (McIntire) 
You are such a good writer Gretchen!
Wow, thank-you! I like to draw parallels can you tell? 🙂
Great writing, Gretchen.
Your poem built and built and built until the breathtaking ending. Powerful stuff.
Thank-you so much Mary!
What a wonderful metaphor and self discovery !
The analogy of the pearl, as if you are the pearl, hence the salt water stinging your eyes as the shell is pried open… “the pearlescent vibrato” a wonderful phrase, Gretchen. And the shattered silence, the gift of the pearl finding its voice.
I’ve said in earlier poems that the sexual abuse was like an irritant in my gut and that protective stuff formed around it, like a pearl, Only this was more like a raisinette made of dung…
Powerful. Love, Amy
Hi Gretchen! I’ve been trying to get back to your blog–I’m not that savvy about running around google plus, but finally, I found you!! Thank you very much for your comment on my blog. The pearl is an excellent analogy and I like it as a hopeful type of thing too–you have wonderful imagery in your poetry, and strong emotion. I really enjoyed this poem–love that phrase “a quiet chance to speak from my dark side.” 🙂
For me, I read this as a sort of peek into Asperger’s. I felt what I feel from time to time. excellent metaphors that evoke emotion without overkill.
wow…you build the intensity well in thsi gretchen…the short line structure play well into this until the cracking which is intense itself…almost palpable…the pearl begins as that grain of salt and pressure builds it forms you know…the pressure all part of it…smiles.
Thank-you Brian! Lots of symbolism since my name means little pearl and I am trying to find my way 🙂
Amazing how agitation and pressure work in a life to produce beautiful effects, though most times we would never choose those methods. Nicely done, Gretchen.
Very true! Sometimes the hardest things in life lead to some of our biggest victories 🙂
I thought of anxiety and the sensations we experience when in uncomfortable or irritating situations. The staccato form and specific word choices make it all the more powerful.
A wonderful metaphor, I love the personal insight. ~peace, Jason
How serenely beautiful is this, Gretchen. Magic in every word.
I like the ‘sifting inside’ and the echos inside…your writing is precise and lovely..