Mirror on the Desk

The mirror on the desk
That belonged to her in life
Where she sat and combed her hair
And where she gave her daughter advice
On beauty and on living
and on how she should be herself
The girl took everything to heart
and now the mirror sits on her desk
She hardly ever uses it
but she can’t throw it away
It reminds her of another time
one different than this in every way
A happier place, simpler too
That place of zero direction
Of living in childhood for the moment
Never thinking too hard
and not seeing an end.

Ball

On the table was a wicker basket
and in the basket a deflated beach ball.
He used it three summers ago when
things were slower
and time was calm.
It’s near the window but sees
no sun, for it is shaded by the blinds.
It only feels the lamp light, leaving
the plastic sphere cold.
Artificial and not fitting of art.
Deflated and left for dead.
It rests there undisturbed by all
never to be thrown again.

Perfect Polypolar

Never waits but takes it’s time and yells silently sublime jumps high but crawls low sprints fast but can go slow and and keeps things up still knows when to stop and I know you know what I’m talking about because you should and its pretty but when has she tried to be sure hasn’t for me and it’s not like she’ll change for ever or for never or for sky or for life but that wasn’t who I was describing the one I was describing is a myth so I don’t know what’s being searched for when legends can’t be found so instead I sleep and instead I sing and my song is my signpost of discord it is red and sometimes not red because if it was always red it would not be chaotic so instead it is all colors and it shows them all at once but each only when convenient and I think that sounds familiar now but if it doesn’t picture the sun if you haven’t seen it before don’t look at it just imagine (because it’s not like you have seen it it’s a legend) and use that to continue behind the sun is only space and in the space dust and between the dust more space but if you keep going you can find seas and ice and water and it’s no different there than it is here and I really mean that it’s no different it’s got to be exactly the same I bet someone wrote this same letter but maybe not in English maybe it’s in something else like singing because even there you won’t find what can never be found but I’m not trying to convince you to give up I’m trying to explain that imagination is key and that the image of a perfect polypolar this everything that is never all at once is impossible so instead searching for a nearly or a mostly or an all but only one is feasible and just as easy to imagine.

Sick

It’s not that I’m dying
now and it’s not that I am stuck lying
down. But even so something in me has
torn. I need a
remedy. A lantern lit boat pushed out to
sea. On a scrap of paper inside is
her name. It’s not that I would wish her
dead and I swear on my
soul I don’t. But when February comes I wish I
could be on that death boat. It started thirteen
years ago and it lasted till
last week. I have no one but myself to
blame for being far too meek. Even so I curse
the world. I grit and bear my
teeth. I dip my finger in the
pool it swirls I’ve been a
fool. The blood mixes in like oil
paints. It fades but is not
faint. I’m stuck and
cold this February. I reach for red
berries. My only drink is melted
snow. Drop the black curtain but
do it slow. Let me go hit the
light. You and I must surely know this show must end
tonight.

Sing

You came and sang your songs to me
Asked me how they sounded
You wanted to feel validated
So why did you come to me?

I was just sitting alone trying to count the stones in the pavement
Picking at my wooden bench
I said they sounded good
Great
You shook your head
A pause as you hesitated
Then said you disagreed
Why did you come to me?
I tried again to say I enjoyed your song
That your voice was clear and the words were novel
I got you to agree

You said “good day”
I said “goodbye”
Why did you come to me?

Green

Olive tree why do you take so long to give me your blessing
I need the fruit of the labor even it I took a shortcut
You ask for too much from me
But I ask for too much from the tree
Even if it’s to fulfill you
I still can’t make it grow faster
I see straight through this like alabaster
Thin alabaster
You can see through alabaster
Don’t tell me you can’t
Stop talking about this
All you’re doing is making me go offtrack
It’s not going to distract from the fact that you have yet to react to the prior question
You know what one
The one I asked the tree
I did ask it
Don’t ask me what it was
Alabaster you’re like alabaster too
So why do you eldue me
It’s that tree
I can’t make it grown any faster
That olive tree doesn’t bear fruit anyway
It bears olives

 

Author’s Note: Virtually meaningless.

Man from Peru

A Projection on Paper… Essay?

I wrote a rather alternative paper for my Argumentation and Advocacy class. It would seem the teacher liked it because I managed an “A” for the course. I’d like to post it here. For the funny/creative stuff, see the intro, conclusion and the text and analysis. If you’d like some somewhat reliable information on spheres of argumentation, read the spheres section. I put the spheres section at the end even though it came first in the paper, because it’s far less interesting of a post (and looks worse therefore when I have to use a “more” tag).

Introduction

            Imagine a world where we are forced to consume footwear against our will. That footwear, completely representational of culture and conquest, stuffed down our throat and forced into our gullets until we begin to walk and talk like those whose shoes we have eaten. That is what happened to a fictional old Peruvian man when the Spanish Government took over his Personal Sphere.

The Text

            “There was an old man from Peru,
Who dreamed he was eating his shoe.
He woke in the night with a terrible fright,
And found it was perfectly true.”

This poem is a symbolic representation of the struggle between the political sphere and the personal sphere, as well as being symbolic of the conquest and revolutions that humans embrace in order to maintain their control over the personal sphere. The shoe is representative of walking, which is how the human race has historically spread from one region of the world to the next and sought conquest, and of culture, because the shoes of a culture vary from one to the next so distinctly. Consuming a shoe is to become like the ones it belonged to. By mentioning Peru, the poem references the revolutions in Peru as well as control from other countries during their revolution-heavy timeline. This is further supported by mention of consuming shoes, as Spanish cloth shoes and Japanese sandals would be significantly easier to consume than the American sneaker, and these cultures have controlled Peru in both the recent and distant past. In finding it true that he was eating his shoe, the old man from Peru has essentially consumed the culture of Spain Continue reading

Climb and Climb

I will fall and you will fall and you will climb and I will climb
I will see and you will see and this will be just watch and see
I need to climb another mountain
Cus the time slows
It walks on you
The ground slips the earth it falls down
Cannot climb here
Your Footing lost
You grasp the ledge ‘fore it breaks off
Still you keep reaching
Fall down again