Two bad poems and one good one

vivianimbriotis | Jan. 19, 2022, 1:53 p.m.

Micrographia

Do you ever feel like no one

Has ever seen you?

Really truly understood you -

Bone and gristle and spine understood you

Vinegar and blood and brine understood you

Crying on the shower floor with wine understood you

Deep down behind the flesh and

The social niceties and the rest

Is a shameful black bile

A viscid private affair. No?

Because I adore you, and I want

That ichor down my throat

I want to bathe in it and revel

I want to lave with it and devote

Myself to you. Please.

--

 

Alarms

Do you truly—

tick

Do you truly think there’s a purpose

To all this? Do you think I

Have a soulmate out there

Or at least a reason to live –

tick

I think we are an accident

And there is no rulebook

No meaning, no one

To tell us what to do –

tick

And we have such little time

So please wake up early with me

You’re missing it

--

In Camera

Thank you for all coming here.

I’d like to start by thanking my parents for molding me from the clay,

and the accident of existence for the distal spark that gave me life.

Thanks also to my friends for stumbling into me and holding on

And to my pets who are dead and, in my heart, live on

And thank you to the man who made my sheets,

They are nice despite not really being put to the uses that I’d hoped

And the woman who made my jacket, when I replaced the lining

I could tell how you must have done it by hand

To my promise I’m sorry I let you down, but I never

Even gave you my word.

To be honest I have many apologies to make

I will have to cut them short for time

I’m sorry to my heart for never attaining what you needed

I’m sorry to my desires for leaving you unheeded

I’m sorry to my dopamine system for never doing drugs

I’m sorry to the rain, for blocking you out with earplugs

I’m sorry to my mind, to whom in hindsight I have been quite unkind