Shattering Goliaths by Annette Kalandros

I shatter Goliaths of stone
When I need.
Goliaths, ever present,
Whisper a white noise mantra
Of my mother’s beer drunk voice:
You’ll never be anything
	Nobody will ever want you
	You can’t do anything right

I can still, at times,
Feel the ghost lash
Sting of the yard stick
Across my back 
To drive this drunken
Wilting wisdom down
Beneath my skin,
Shards of shattered 
Beer pearl wisdom
Inside me 
Timed to come out to play
Inside my brain
In spring like days.

Other Goliaths have come,
Flowers of poison
Sprouting where they
Have walked upon my back
Before leaving.
Their ghosts spouting
White noise words
Echoing sentiments
Of my drunken mother.

I have learned to shatter 
My Goliaths of stone
When they appear.
Ghost stone monuments
To egos needing boosting rest 
Upon another’s back.
Yet the shards of stone 
Pile upon me, upon my chest, upon my soul
Leaving me without breath,
Within a sarcophagus of stone
While the white noise voice of a drunken
Mother plays the top ten tunes of childhood--
Then my fists ball up, strike stone
Nails claw, dig into cracks
Fingers, knuckles bleeding,
Dripping drops of glue
To piece together the mosaic of me—
This mosaic of brokenness
I am made of 

the stone coffins
From which I’ve freed myself.





I am now a mosaic 
Of triumph and tragedy,
Of love and loss,
Of living and dying,
Of the stone graves 
Others have carved for me
And all the shades
Of colors between—
I continue to decorate myself
With the stones I polish,
Taking power from the lies
Of the Goliaths I have shattered.

Annette Kalandros (pronouns: She, Her) is a retired teacher who is proud and honored to have her work featured in two Indie Blu’s anthologies, As the World Burns: Writers and Artists Reflect on a World Gone Mad and THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: Reflecting on Madness and Chaos Within. She is also honored to have her work published in the Be Proud with Pride edition of The Pinecone Review and Women Speak: Women of Appalachia Project anthology.

Website:  http://aikalandros.com