There's someone in here,
inside my
skin,
someone Frankensteined
up from a girl
I used to be or
never was
or
someone on a greased slide
to the boneyard
(yep, that was
me)
but she got
off at
El Paso
sweet little woman get along.
See, I'm living for two
now,
preggers with myself
and way
overdue
but we're cute af
in certain light
or in
my imagination
or
in the sight of God
with a
heave
and a
ho
I just couldn't let her go.
_______
I believe every line of this about you! I love the title too and the casual throwaway phrases like "preggers with myself" and "cute af." It's so tough-talking but you also know there's another more tender story underneath. Is that a photo of a younger you? :-)
ReplyDeleteIt's just an image I found on Pinterest that spoke to me. :-)
DeleteNice subversion, turning self-fragmentation into something desirable at best, an anticipated birth into wholeness, which “in the sight of God” would be pronounced good. Intriguing and provoking, Shay, with a jauntiness that hides sadness and longing.
ReplyDeleteNever let her go … from Helen.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely wonderful and a joy to read. Thank you, pal.
ReplyDeleteI LOVE this, and it is you to a T. Also, what Helen said.
ReplyDeleteI really relish the style of these recent poems. The content, the actual poetry itself of course is the ground we work, the crop we tend, but these expressions the fruit, and the taste, the shape and color of the fruit is where style comes in. This one is both bittersweet and thirst-quenching because of its method of expression, direct, almost terse, yet so evocative and penetrating, with every word doing its job, adding its puzzle piece to the jigsaw of self we struggle so hard to birth in the protracted labor of our lives, and the hint of song and melody to deepen it all. Just a gem of a poem, Shay.
ReplyDeleteLife can be like a snowball....ever growing and layering, and I think that can happen with the core of who we are too. This is brilliant my friend. You always say so much with precise words. You are like a word surgeon instead of a brain surgeon. Or maybe you are a brain surgeon with words!!! Anyway, I love this!
ReplyDelete