Conviction

This week was Write Poetry week with Sara-Jane on Zoom. 

The thread for the workshop was 'volta' or turn.   The volta is a dramatic change in thought and/or emotion and can be seen in all types of written poetry.  I only completed one of the three exercises.

Conviction 

Iron strikes iron
Metal on metal
as sparks fly. 

Sweat trickles
in rivulets down wrinkled skin,
wiped off with dirty rags. 

Smoothed iron
heated and beaten
into chains 

leg cuffs, hand cuffs
to tether the wrong-doer.
Judged, convicted 

transported
in overcrowded prison ships
fettered by the chains 

of crime. To live,
to die on foreign soil
with time to consider 

the life lived before.
What chains do we wear?
What fetters us? 

What holds us back
from all that we can do?
Not crime but lack 

of conviction
in ourselves, our abilities.
No confidence. 

A continual questioning
Who am I?
Am I enough?

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice