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Best Poems Written by Tess Norton

Below are the all-time best Tess Norton poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Being Jemima

Being Jemima
Aunt Jemima! Who in God’s name
Came up with that name?
Molded polyurethane encasing
Thick sweet amber
You didn’t even think enuf of me
To give me decent clothes

I can do better than smother hotcakes
Take this kerchief off my head, you hear?
I ain’t no maid, no servant, no flapjack topper
Get me off this table and let me be what
I was destined to be, what I’m free to be.
Aunt Jemima. Really. What’s takin’ so long?

8-16-12

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Naked

Naked

Unarmed I stood against the beast
Defending what was mine
The theft of my guileless innocence
His most cruel, remorseless crime

Fighting slings and arrows
Words that cut me to the quick
Lifting thin arms in resistance
To his heavy, brutish fists

Sorrow comes in darkness
Arrives without an invite
The moon stares dully at me
No magic will save me tonight

Measured unforgiving blows
He chose where each would land
Dark purple bruises gave away
Where my body had been slammed

With my knack for weak excuses
“I tripped and fell down again”
He sneered that they’re “just love taps”
While I played a game called ‘pretend’

Naked in my bed
Protecting a child yet unborn
Came another beating
From this cur who’d earned my scorn

What cannot be seen in shadows
Can suffocate one’s will
When I reclaimed my spirit
I crawled out of the mouth of hell

Ages have come to pass since then
The fiend at last routed from my life
I’m no longer frightened
Of just being someone’s wife

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Perfection, Perfectly

Perfection, Perfectly (A pantoum)

That thing hung over me
Like a musty old cloak
Grown heavy with hate moss
Dripping from its frayed edges

Like a musty old cloak
Warning me he was coming!
Dripping from its frayed edges
So I could be ready

Warning me he was coming
To serve perfection, perfectly
So I could be ready,
While walking on eggshells

To serve perfection, perfectly
I was shattered, but still whole
While walking on eggshells,
Dodging hurled glasses of iced tea

I was shattered, but still whole
Your lips pulled thin angry white
Dodging hurled glasses of iced tea
In the hell known as my life

Your lips pulled thin angry white
You made me so scared
In the hell known as my life
But I endured you

You made me so scared!
Now the cloak has been burned
But I endured you
My flesh survived

Now the cloak has been burned
Grown heavy with hate moss
My flesh survived
That thing hung over me

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Farewell, Sweet Summer

Farewell, Sweet Summer!

Autumn near, flowers bent towards the sun
Almost prostrating themselves-so distressing 
Like beggars clutching at Jesus, craving the One
Sunbeams turn their backs without even a blessing

So the brightest star pulls away, off somewhere else
It’s got other appointments to keep
In the distance toll the old mission bells
Like a dirge, and the whole garden weeps

Alas, summer is dying, sucking its last muggy breaths
As crickets scrich their sharp taunting jeers
Not many seem saddened at all by this death
And for this passing mourners won’t raise a bier

Autumn is born, its gestation complete
We excitedly awaited your cool advent
No longer stuck in thick, cloying heat
Gone is the summer of our hot discontent

Yes! Fall is born! Let’s give it a name!
It will spend its time blowing chilled breezes
Soon it will set the landscape aflame
As it whirls all the kaleidoscope leaves

Freed from arthritic twigged branches
As fingers release shiny gold coins
Nature’s allegro pirouette dancers
Auditioning for the autumnal Bolshoi

Others float gently through brisk afternoon air
Like large brilliant harvest snowflakes
Landing softly on a grassy blanket there
To wait defenseless, for the merciless rake

Details | Tess Norton Poem

The Butterfly

In my cocoon
I am safe
Here, it is warm, dark,
Quiet.

But the darkness suffocates.
The quiet of my world
Becomes a tormenting din,
The warmth, cloying.

Untested wings beat against
The walls of my prison.
Eager to escape captivity,
Longing to let light
Pierce the murkiness.
It is time to crawl out
And feel the sun!

Boldly, my proud wings open
As I take flight and reach my potential.
A kaleidoscope of colors
Glinting against the brilliant blue sky,
I am a butterfly.

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Jeffrey, Interrupted

You picked a path when met with fork
And trod it bare so oft you walked
Into a tunnel so wretched and corrupted 
You slipped away, Jeffrey interrupted

Wednesday’s child is full of woe
But my May child has far to go
A decade times two your sacrifice
Fool’s gold for that roll of dice

Your values anorexic, almost starved to death
In the winter of your soul I cannot see your breath
Countless earnest declarations to all that you are well
But still you keep on walking through the raging gates of hell

Mephistopheles offered you a bargain so appealing
It mattered not to you to know that he’d be double-dealing
His sly smile belied the fingers crossed behind his crooked tail
You’re at a losing table, out of chips, and you’re no whale

Your dreams were long forgotten, and sadly never stoked
If I hadn’t watched this happen I would have thought it a sick joke
Something else seduced you and it surely did beguile
Enough to make you believe that your life was not worthwhile

You saw yourself in visions, amber glass contained your poison
False idols tempt with silent gestures - like a sailor lured by sirens
You go through good intentions like a sieve, like sand through glass
Earnest promises, years gone by, crises survived, but more forecast

For years I have done so many things to save you from yourself, my Jeff
I’ve run out of ideas to keep you whole, I’ve really nothing left
Like any loving mother I do not wish to see you in a tomb
And if I could, I would place you back into the safety of my womb

Details | Tess Norton Poem

The Hole In Me

The Hole in Me
 
There’s a fist-sized hole inside me
Bitter air blows through it
Listen to it keening
It’s where my heart used to fit

It flew away long ago
Looking for kinder shores
It waved to me as it lifted up
And smiled sadly
As if it didn’t want to go

I reached up 
To try to pull it back
But it was out of my grasp
Hearts have a mind of their own

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Cool Water

Cool Water

It’s been so long since I’ve had that water
The soft rain of you restored every withered part of me
And my blood still burns
Recalling your touch…like gentle showers

In the dark I can see your face
Summoning each familiar detail
Brings my heart to a state of grace
It knows so rarely now

Like sepia dust kicked up by an old car on a dirt road
The tendrils of my memories fade to nothingness
As if they never existed, and settle once more
Waiting for the cool water to drench me

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Gathering Stones

It is dreadfully bitter
The taste of my imprudence

A brackish reminder

Bubbling acrid froth
Impossible
To choke back
Aftershocks heave and pitch my 
Shaky foundation

Acid courses over

	My
	Dreams

Destroying hope of
Amaranthine love

The brine erodes each stone
So well
Etches them with its indifferent regard
Leaving me a caustic cocktail
To slake a ruthless thirst

Nothing is sweet

Everything 
		Burns

Dreams are best left for dreamers
I will gather stones for my foundation

Details | Tess Norton Poem

Ether Dreams

Ether Dreams

Chasing all my dreams
Hoping they’ll come true
Watching them unravel
Evaporating like morning dew

Like a lacy web between two worlds
So fragile and suspended 
Buffeted by gales of fate
Pulling ‘til it can’t be mended

A battle rages in me
My heart and head at odds
I wanted to reflect with joy
Upon the path that we both trod

To fight these losing skirmishes
When your postures are competing
Is like death by a thousand cuts
Leaving you broken, rough, and bleeding