oh, this life.
what of it?
There is no consequence
to all the business of it all:
deadlines
formats
dress codes (unspoken but felt)
food stuck in our grinning teeth.
I am
misspoken
misshapen
rubbing out mysterious muscle twinges
under
fluorescent lights
in this world’s pulsing
mcdonalds walmarts
everywhere and nowhere
voting
spouting taste in music
watching the
working out of our packaging
of interests and style
haircuts and witticisms
posted to our brand.
Yet
all is naught.
We are engaged in
the longest ever
staring contest
with the bottom slime
of a kombucha brew.
I am hoping to see
that there is
no
where
to go but up.
Zooming out a bit more,
we will see there is not up
or down.
We are
reaching out for the wall
to steady our swirling confusion –
yikes –
no wall
no hands
no more.
I don’t know how
we keep on playing such
serious life games.
How do we go on
getting out of bed
putting on
our clothes,
talking about tomorrow?
Ignore me,
I’m in an achy,
icky,
pool.
I’ve swum
sum
laps in
the molasses
of my waste.
Just wait
perhaps soon after
I towel off,
I look up and
the stars remind
me to forget.
Life as Improv 
Oh what a beautiful ending; I wasn’t expecting that. In fact, I had in mind Hamlet’s soliloquy as I read your piece here Marga – hey, you’re in elevated company honey! Anyway, you know the one; our prince is feeling a bit off colour with the world, just as you dear princess first appear to be in your regal work above:
‘I have of late – but wherefore I know not – lost all my mirth, forgone all custom of exercises; and indeed it goes so heavily with my disposition that this goodly frame, the earth, seems to me a sterile promontory, this most excellent canopy, the air, look you, this brave o’erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, why, it appears no other thing to me than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours. What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?’
Hariod. ❤
There is some sort of lifting that occurs by calling it out and pulling up words to attach to the heaviness of some mood-states.
Ah Hariod,
Shakespeare? Goodness. I relived the words with your posting of a classroom recitation of this very soliloquy. His images and metaphors make me want to pull out the eraser and give it all a go again or rather just read and read and read the ones who capture it for all of us, so well. The mood hailed a bike taxi, so while I can still catch sight of it down the road, it is moving out of town. I can relate so to Hamlet as I am from a town called Ambivalence. Ease and joy to you! xo! m
Love this – you are a truly gifted poet! Peace . . .
You are so kind. I am posting my self-medicating words for a pressing mind state. I am glad to say it worked to help it move on! I wish you much peace and ease in your corner, tonight! m
I am so glad! Yo truly are a gifted writer 🙂 I’m happy that it helped you! Peace . . .
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Oh gosh I’ve swim some laps like this! Very tiring in fact I just finished and towered off as well took tomorrow off! There has to be something different!
Risinghawk is spot on about your writing! Wonderful! 😄
So nice to meet you, MIchelle. Enjoying this Friday with you, as we step outside of muck and create that something different! I am looking forward to a visit to your corner!
marga
Oh wow thank you so much! I plan on visiting you as well! Have a blessed weeekend! 😄
Lovely! and I especially loved the ending, the stars have a way of doing that 🙂
Thank goodness for stars 🙂
reading
and having one of those moments 🙂
the
sharing of these
moments
helps me
smile more
calmly 🙂
Present. (is this moment a sangha for the weary? we breathe the raggedness together, circling together, knowing together. yes… the bell chants in the distance. i hear!) _/|\_
Love, love, love this!
There you are! Hope classes are going well!!!
Oh, how you’re writing strikes so many notes on the scale simultaneously, even the ones in the invisible octaves. This is important: to be able to stand in a vapid wind with food in our grinning teeth, staring at the electrified-gas lit beverage tank, and to reach in and pull out the greenest, blackest kombucha in the back. The outdated one. And chug it. Then wipe your mouth off with the back of your arm and rest easy knowing you just committed an act of defiance against meaninglessness.
Or you could write your way through the wind…
Do you drink that slime on the bottom? I always feel like I add a month to my life if I grimace and swallow a small metropolis of those jazzy little beings. The problem is that for all my good intentions I can’t make it out of the parking space without having those things blow up in the car.
Michael
To slime or not to slime, that is a question! I have just consumed my very first home brewed bottle of kombucha – over a month in getting to this first “swiggable” point. Boy, was it slimy 🙂 I have to admit, I filtered it, so I will be exiting the planet a few months earlier, now. haha. So true on the exploding nature – not a drink for polite company. I am always so amazed that people get my strangeness – join in – and make it a party. Raising my glass to cheer you, Michael, with slime and carbonation!
I love your self medication. I shall join you in tossing the Wal-Mart McDonald’s slime into the brewing kombucha cauldron. Perhaps after much bubbling and fermenting they shall become more palatable. If not, then we should probably just get drunk on the stars. 🙂 Thank you for your self medication, your ointment sooths my aching joints.
So terrific in my often quiet realm, these days, to know that you are joining me under the stars for much merriment! I see you have a post up that I will visit in a few. It is a treat I am delaying as I force myself to grade a bit. 5 papers more and I get to visit A in her wonderful corner!
xo!! m