Breath & Shadow
Winter 2011 - Vol. 8, Issue 1
"Heaven’s Hope"
written by
Venetia Ghozlan
heaven is a fevered hope for the dispossessed
a mirage that blooms as we lay dying
it is a placebo to sweeten a soured mythos
a carrot to dangle before the unrepentant
it is the payout for living the lie of sacrifice
the reward for being the wolf's willing sheep
it is the willful blinders donned to avoid seeing
that we are born, we live and then we
die
food for the feasting crows
Venetia Ghozlan is a 52 year old of mixed cultural heritage and an atheist and humanist. She works for the Social Security Administration (her daytime grunt earn the gruel gig) and has written since she could breathe...or at least think, cognitively.
Venetia is inspired by the whispers in the wind, the screams contained in the thunder and the silence of mutes. Her poems have appeared in the Amistad Anthology (Howard University), Wordgathering, Language and Culture, and in The 10th Christell Writing Contest.