In these five hundred days she
has learnt how to button up
and down, down, down.
One circle at a time, slowly,
painfully, she would get rid of
words that she thought defined her
self, on, and on, and on.
Sometimes the thread was off the hole.
Sometimes the plastic marked under her nail
like a bite at some body part
she had forgotten she had.
Sometimes one edge was off the other
like envy had swallowed up
eyes she had forgotten she had.
She kept stripping anyway
layers of clothes, on the floor
her feet felt no more sure than they were.
She kept ripping anyway
layers of skin, under her nails
what was once bitten was no more – oblivion.
What was she flashing about?
What was she fleshing about?
Sometimes the breast was off the shirt.
Sometimes the strap marked down to her collar
bone bitten by her own body
she had forgotten she had.
Sometimes one sex was off the other
like lust that had followed up
but – she had forgotten she’d had
those five hundred days.
She had learnt how to live up to
expectations and down, down.
One cycle at a time, painkillingly,
heartbreakingly, she had gotten to the rim of
words that would always define herself
and them, hem, hem.
*** Poem written for dVerse Poets Pub. You might have got that the prompt was ‘buttons’… That was my version of it, together with a -sadly expressed- celebration of my 100th post on Hiroshimem. Please don’t be mistaken, I’m actually quite happy that I was able to write so many posts. Thanks to everyone who read and slash or commented. Feedback is always appreciated. ***
smiles….congrats on 100 that is awesome…some really intense imagery and rather surreal at points the ripping of her own flesh has nice symbolism to it though…it is def a journey…smiles…
Thank you so much!!
Love the way you compared this is with stripping, finding and searching for your words, and just hem and hem ~ Congrats on your milestone and cheers to many more ~
Thank you! Yeah, there definitely is many more to come!
oh heck..tight images in this..some of them quite painful but in the stripping away the hope unfolding… congrats on 100 posts…way to go poet…smiles
Thank you!! That’s very appreciated.
The imagery in this is really awesome. Made me shiver a couple of times along the way. Congrats on 100!
I’m glad to hear that 😉 Thank you!
This evolution, very closely inspected evolution of self thru language, symbolized by sewing together the pieces that writing unveils… Tantalizing images of a self under construction, startling for their impact and ability to be spoken at all.
Sometimes one edge was off the other
like envy had swallowed up
eyes she had forgotten she had.
That is intriguing, a shattering line of recognition, unsayable but said.
Thank you so much. I feel honoured to get such a deep comment. « Unsayable but said », you wrote; I’d add, isn’t the self the most ambiguous of things, a thing that runs in two directions at the same time? Well, in my case, it is.
Congratulations!
Thank you!
Congrats on the 100 mark–one day in the far, far future, I too hope to have such a celebration. I enjoyed your post–the opening stanza in particular drew me in. So thanks for sharing it even if it didn’t express your happy milestone.
Thank you so much! First stanzas are easiest to write for me… I just have to work on writing next stanzas that draw the reader in! haha.
i like how you used buttoning up for a metaphor for the writing process.
3 radio button senryu
Thank you! Buttoning up… or down 😉