It's Late & I Just Want Spaghetti and the Crickets to Shut the Hell Up
A stream of a poem
The crickets here never take a breath
A constant ticking and chirping
An accompaniment to the dogs that chase
The cats that scowl
The humanity outside the door
That is filled with the dust of life
Humidity hangs lower than their chors*
Home swirls in my mind as I build it
Grief lingers as I continually let go of the past
A nightmarish dream that chases and clutches my wrists as I scream in its face over and over again
Where I wake up to crickets that never cease
And dogs that keep fucking (so damn loud)
I keep wondering if my dog understands what they bark at him
And if I'll ever feel like I fit in anywhere in my lifeline
Or if I'm always meant to sneeze my own tune and pretend to play the piano
When in reality, I can barely keep a beat on the drum
I wonder if my heartbeat is irregular too
Yet when I press my cheek to my wife's skin
I hear her irregular tune and think
"Yeah, that makes sense that this is home"
But she's asleep now
And I just want to make spaghetti for the second late-night in a row
I wonder what stops us from doing what we want
Conformity I suppose
Though I won't forget the one time she and I made full-on spaghetti at midnight, and it was the bomb
Maybe I'll give the middle finger to conformity tomorrow
Maybe I'll keep her up longer than the damn crickets.
-- -- --
*chors - shorts
About the Creator
Oneg In The Arctic
A queer storyteller and poet of arctic adventures, good food, identity, mental health, and more.
Co-founder of Queer Vocal Voices
Water is Life ✊
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A Fate Unavoidable
Savannah has released her first challenge on Vocal and DAMN was it a good one! She asks of us to “Write a poem, inspired by or referencing at least one character of Greek Myth*, and mention at least one season of the year. The poem needs to consist of twelve lines.” This was not easy! I scrapped at least three versions. But here’s what I’ve come up with…
By Oneg In The Arcticabout a year ago in Poets
Comments (5)
now i'm wondering if my dogs know when other dogs are fucking "(so damn loud)." this was wonderful. screw conformity, make your spaghetti, do your thing.
Great image choice and poem!
This was a work of art. I would pull out a line to quote but each one was powerful in its own right. Absolutely stunning!
Nicely done. I especially liked the lines “I wonder if my heartbeat is irregular too / Yet when I press my cheek to my wife's skin / I hear her irregular tune and think / ‘Yeah, that makes sense that this is home’”. They were so sweet and beautiful. I love how you captured the feeling of being out of the ordinary but defying conformity to make a home with the person you love. Well done.
Thanks for the late night cravings for garlic. Confirms I'm not a vampire. 🍝🍝🍝