The fresh hell

of new grief and mistakes

rains down heavy

  Water turns to steel

shredding old wounds

Despair digs in

hauling me under

I reach through the muddy current

for one last lifeline

And the sound surrounds me

The drum’s heartbeat pulses through me

Each beat

a new breath

The guitar’s wail

morphs

into a low mellow rail

laying down a path out of hell

Brass notes soar

and I sing and scream along

letting each note

each word

stitch me back together

Until the last chord leaves me

back in the real

encased

in a temporary armor

by Christina Lynn Lambert

My latest poem was inspired by my nearly finished work in progress, Tiger’s Last Chance, a paranormal romance in my Stranger Creatures series. In this story, the main character, Sean, is a recovering alcoholic and music is his lifeline when things get too intense for him to bear. In the beginning of the story, he travels from Texas to the fictional town of Great Oaks, Virginia to help Detective Nikki Jackson with an off-the-official record kind of investigation and ends up falling hard for the detective. But he can go back to Texas and forget about her, right?