Monday Poems January 2023 Week 2

Here there be poems

Some are pretty good. Some are, well, not as good. Some are uplifting and fun, some are — well, let’s just say perhaps I shouldn’t write when I’m in certain moods or I run the risk of channeling Emily Dickenson on one of her absolute worst days (both poetry and mood-wise). It has been a rough week. Again, thanks to Tanweer Dar over at Mastodon who gives these #Mastoprompt ideas and makes the magic (and madness) happen.

This week I also started writing microfiction based on the same prompts. I’m using it as story and character development for a long-abandoned project that really deserves to be finished. Maybe it’ll motivate me to finish someday. But the microfiction bits are going in a different post, so you’ll just have to come back later for that.

My comments on each poem follow that poem in italics.

Convince

You don’t need to convince me
That you have a right to pee
In your bathroom of choice
alto or baritone voice
It’s okay to let the stream free

Trans people have the absolute right to pee in whatever bathroom works for them. And you have the absolute right to mind your own business and not enquire after other peoples’ genitals.

Rupture

A rupture, a fissure, a crack
Harsh words you can never take back
Some wounds you can’t mend
Say goodbye to your friend
It’s all done, and the scene fades to black

this little limerick is a good way to remind you that sometimes an apology will never be enough.

Entwine

Our rights and responsibilities are entwined.
Efforts to separate them always fail
And always continue.

This is a theme I explore over and over again in my writings and in my therapy work. Rights and responsibilities are a dialectic. You can’t have one without the other, and sometimes they don’t mesh well.

Open

Open your heart to
the imperfections of the
people that you love

I find it interesting that literally less than a minute of effort got so many people on Mastodon engaged with it. Sure, it’s an important sentiment, but it’s just one sentence split into a haiku.

Tailspin

Neurospicy tailspin
a word, a breeze, a sound no one else can hear
a smell that no one else notices
and suddenly “out of nowhere” rage and grief and everything too much
too much
too much
Rocking
Screaming
Rocking
Rocking
Breathing
Breathing
Rocking
Breathing one more time.
Yeah. I’m okay.
Thank you.

This describes what your body and mind go through during a meltdown when you have learned to turn meltdowns around, and how the mask goes back up at the end, as soon as possible.

Knowing

knowing is nothing
without understanding that
now it’s time to act

again, this is one of those “pieces of wisdom” that many people miss. Knowing that something is the right thing to do is just the first step. Now it’s on you to DO it.

Fastidious

Fastidious hate
identifies differences
and marks for disgust

Hey, it’s not my fault that this one limps. “Fastidious” is a really tough word to put into a poem. That said, much of “hate” is rooted in culturally-bound disgust that is taught as we are learning to navigate the world. “If you’re different from us, you’re wrong” is a lesson far too many toddlers learn.

That’s all for now

I admit that after re-reading them for this article, I like them better. But I hope this week I’ll have a bit more time and energy to think about the new prompts so I create something a bit better.

Thank you