Let's Take a Recess
a poem
Courtroom drama—no not a film. Your life
here. I see it now.
Too many straws. One to break your calcified love
A hundred bits scrubbed from the carpet.
Overwhelming the room. Iron, sweat, urea. Smell it?
You fill my vision, send my mind to you
I, in that moment, wedged so in the lockbox
of your memories
I, embracing the instrument to shatter
bone splinters under red waterfalls,
I and my curiosity smashed—
wanting now to puke.
You sit beneath two shirts, coiffed model hair
disdain etched into your upper lip
and the crack of your nose—I could chisel this day
in marble. You—
Casual.
Poised against attack.
Well.
Lucky you.
The beige wall knows you better than your thumb
stroking smooth firmness for a hit of pleasure.
Instagram intoxicates.
Was it for clout?
Twist your verbiage more—I don't get it.
A hundred bits to scrub from the carpet.
I see the ones you missed.
They burrow into my sole skin
for you shredded two of three—
body and spirit.
Here to remember is my mind
awash in skinless love.
A recess in this timeline—done now.
Sounds resume. Motions play.
And perhaps you will say something
I can swallow.
***
Thank you for reading! This is for Ashley Lima’s Unsplash Photo Challenge.
About the Creator
Mackenzie Davis
“When you are describing a shape, or sound, or tint, don’t state the matter plainly, but put it in a hint. And learn to look at all things with a sort of mental squint.” Lewis Carroll
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Copyright Mackenzie Davis.
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Time for #2
This is the second article on my review of the ideas in The Four Agreements. Here's the first article: I knew that I'd move forward with this series, but I put it off as Agreement #2 is a big stumbling block for me. I'd like to say I decided to get out of my own way and thus wrote this, but that isn't the truth. (Since Agreement #1 is to Be Impeccable with Your Word I surely need to own up to that)
By Judey Kalchik 3 days ago in BookClub
Comments (6)
Oh, fudging bravo! And dammit, going to sound like a copycat, but I love "calcified love" as a phrase. I'm glad you did this challenge because you've done a lot of poems and microfiction based on photos already. Impressive stuff as ever, Mackenzie, thank you for being on this platform and being inspiring!
Calcified love. I loved that term so much! Your poem was very deep and thought provoking! Excellent poem based on the pic!
Fascinating use of the image! Really well done. You say so much in this poem and leave it so open to interpretation at the same time. Love it
Interesting take on the photo. He does look rather casual & unconcerned.
Very convictive and to the point, very nice Mackenzie
Verbal savagery that represents a situation of verbal savagery, but your cutting verses give it lots of brutal elegance. Like how you break it up. You make the reader really feel your pain (or the "speaker's" pain as they say in school), as over against the impassibility of the interlocutor. Pretty stark stuff.