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 torrents,
I and my curiosity smashed—
wanting now to puke.
You sit beneath two shirts, coiffed hair
disdain upon your upper lip
and the crack of your nose—I could chisel this day
in marble. You—
Casual.
Poised against attack.
Well.
Aren't you lucky.
That beige wall knows you better
than anyone here. Your scrying glass—
perhaps it sees, as you see lies,
the truth: Instagram
intoxicates.
Did you do it for clout?
Twist your words more—I'll never get it.
A hundred bits to scrub from the carpet.
I know the ones you missed; they burrow
in my sole skin, for you shredded two of three—
Body. Spirit.
Here to remember is my mind
awash in bloodless love.
We took our recess—
Sounds resume. Motions play.
And perhaps you will say something
all of us can swallow.
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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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.