At A Disadvantage

This picture was shared today on Facebook by my friend George Breed. George resides in Flagstaff, Arizona. Please click on the picture to get the full effect. The other source of tonight's poem was the beginning of Mary Ruefle's poem Elegy For A Game. You can find the poem HERE. The beginning went

"Once I was on earth
and I liked it.
I got to look at my toes
underwater. They looked bigger
than they were in real life."

But in fact, the real point is her whole poem which I highly recommend. It moved me enough to reply in my own darker way.

At A Disadvantage

Was I really pushed
under the edge of it all
as if in the pond
you found, ducks in place,
others coming fast across
the flat thicker ice?
It may freeze over
in a few days and then what?
Then oh me sinking,
pleading for my last
breath, just one more from the hole
with little duck feet.

December 26, 2012 6:25 PM

The darkness in this poem is actually about how I may never be a real poet (reference Pinocchio's wish to be a real boy) if Mary is my measure. Rest assured I understand that my own critique of my work may mean very little if I refuse to let my "harsh" (of course I would say, realistic) judgement stop me. So far I have continued no matter what, certain this whole thing is in the mainstream of my destiny.

Oh yes... that last line? Carl Sandburg's poem Fog which goes

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

I am shameless...