Showing posts with label fighting with self. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fighting with self. Show all posts

Friday, November 20, 2015

A (One) Way with Words


Bang my head on the keyboard
or Edit, and it's still not there.
Stab myself with a pen-
blood doesn't flow like ink.
I'm not going deep enough.
Wrestle with words and choices,
so many I swoon, dizzy with dialect.
Research always interrupts, conniving
cuts the line midsentence.
Doubt-well, you know.
If I stop all together it's too much.
If I let go completely it's too much
evasive etymology
and not just the words that wander...
I'm led all over elsewheres, other places
by memories, imagery, crap-aphony noise
vying for my prompt attention!

And then, when I push hard enough
to leave a mark.
By means of suffocation,
I can feel the pulse intensity.
The louder the heart beats the page
blue and red
and when it's read
I know my fear shows
how I really feel
as I instead tell you
taking my final breath
choking on my ink.
Finally, dead and gone,
without ever leaving a mark.




Image of painting by Henry Wallis [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, 1856. 

Lip sticks and stones

The way my name  sits in your mouth, at least, you want it to. The 'a' hanging an ellipses on the sound waves. The rattling of conso...