Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Small Griefs, Cut It Loose

There is a fly, a long bodied creature with transparent wings. These wings have a small dark colored square most of the way out on the front of the wing if I remember right. They are long legged but the legs are so thin and fragile, that I often see them flying with legs missing. They have a tiny proboscis-like brush in front. I have seen them use it on my skin so I guess it is like a nose but it too is so delicate that I feel nothing. There are many of them around. They often wind up in my bathroom, just as this poem claims. My bathroom is the lightest room in my house because of the skylight, but they like the mirror and the white of my tub. They die there. But I think they die pretty quickly, like mayflies do. I like them. I especially like their wings.

Small Griefs

What I want to know,
Why do you and your sisters
Pick my main bathroom
To hang in, then die?
All the time I move your dead
Young bodies aside
And they fall apart
When I do it, so slender
They are, delicate.

And why die so young?

January 14, 2009 9:10 AM

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Here's a "not a real poem". The real poem flew away. This is the poem I had to write instead. By the way, it is hard to write up this particular tree. The wind gets in my eyes, blows the led lights all over the place. Also, it was a bitch climbing back down.

Cut It Loose

I cut this poem
Loose from me, from my long grasp
Even before done.
Look at it fly off
To the west after the sun
Setting below me
While I'm up this tree.

I want you to know this works.
My poem's long gone.

January 14, 2009 3:46 PM

10 comments:

  1. Love this one...on many levels. The title of this post is captivating
    Linda

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  2. Yes, Christopher, I used to wonder at those Craneflies (?, I think that is what we call them here) and Mayflies -- to live one day -- some of them not even eat -- just to have their young...But then I realized how long their larval stage was and it made me feel better somehow -- some mayflies can moult nearly 20 times when they live in the water -- can you imagine shedding your skin so many times in your life time? Maybe you have;)

    I love the title "Small Griefs" Life is full of small griefs and small joys...everyday. For me in the bathroom it is usually spiders in the tub -- I am constantly catching them and putting them outside...alive...small joys :)

    "Cut It Loose" I know that feeling with poetry! So often I am done before the poem is done. The rest of the poem is somewhere I don't have access to -- it belongs to someone else...I almost thought it was mine but the words evaporate -- and then I find words written elsewhere that say what I felt, what was vibrating inside...and I am grateful.

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  3. Thank you, Linda.

    Faith, I will go with Craneflies for now :) I know I am not the only one whose poems fly the coop. I often lose entire poems, only writing the aftermath.

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  4. I love this pair of poems. There is a similarity in them. The insects, that brush thing is their mouth. They are actually very old, not young... they live most of their lives as juveniles, then they enter the adult form for just a few hours, to lay eggs and die. This I know from the mayflies and craneflies, so likely it's the case with yours as well.

    I feel a tug to respond to this more, but I need to dwell on it for a bit.

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  5. Rachel, I see the similarity you mean, I think. And it means that my mood didn't shift that much from day's beginning to day's end.

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  6. Thank you for the new flybot. I shall use it to carry very small messages very short distances.

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  7. I love, love "Cut It Loose"!! That poem is a metaphor for so much in life.

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  8. Karen, I am pleased when I connect with you like this.

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  9. Wow Christopher...both of these....poignant.

    xx

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The chicken crossed the road. That's poultry in motion.


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