NOT DEAD YET: COLLECTIVE POETRY, ROUND 12

This week’s piece is partially inspired by a photo of a vase of wilting roses. It is also informed by a great article I’d just read about the toxic messaging in the show Sex in the City, a series which I loved, in which the main character, Carrie Bradshaw, spends a decade chasing after a handsome, charismatic man — who does not does not prioritize her. It’s a real eye-opener, and you can read it here.

It was easy to use the dying flowers as a metaphor for an aging body & (more poetically) a battered heart.

In the end, I used 5 lines from followers, and I even managed to use one suggestion to title the piece.

It all adds up.

All the leaping off ledges,

bad landings, bruised feet

twisted ankles, crushed hedges

jostled bones & joints,

the bloodshot eyes

swollen & blue

& stretching myself thin, 

for everyone, for you

pushing & pulling

taking the dagger

those poisonous darts

leaving me

a canopy 

of broken parts.

Once upon a time,

everything was fresh & tall

but the sky fell down 

scribble & scrawl

now every shooting star 

reminds me of you, a spark 

too beautiful to last, a streak

across the night sky 

life is a drooping bouquet 

once carried, faded pink

petals pressed 

between a tablet of lies.

Tell me, how

do you love a stone? 

How do you know 

when to leave him alone? 

My hands mangled 

from walls of rock. 

My heart tangled 

as I race the clock, 

grabbing at the ghost 

of chance, the amalgamation 

of a decade long dance, spent 

chasing & banging my head

on the ground in a trance

Trying to make you love me. 

NOTE:

On Wednesdays, I post a random photograph on Facebook & then ask people to contribute a line of poetry inspired by a photo. Later, I attempt to cobble together a cohesive piece of writing from as many of these suggestions as I can.

If you’d like to get in on the action, follow me on my Rasjacobson Art Facebook Page.