likes wearing candy-apple red ([info]cette_vie) wrote,
@ 2009-03-23 00:10:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend  Next Entry
Current mood:quite awake
Current music:Coldplay // Talk // X&Y
Entry tags:poetry

A poem Richard sent me last year.
I am Very Bothered

I am very bothered when I think
of the bad things I have done in my life.
Not least that time in the chemistry lab
when I held a pair of scissors by the blades
and played the handles
in the naked lilac flame of the Bunsen burner;
then called your name, and handed them over.

O the unrivalled stench of branded skin
as you slipped your thumb and middle finger in,
then couldn't shake off the two burning rings. Marked,
the doctor said, for eternity.

Don't believe me, please, if I say
that was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen,
of asking you if you would marry me.

-- Simon Armitage


(2 comments) - (Post a new comment)


[info]alexinmedford
2009-03-23 05:17 am UTC (link)
*le swoon*

Reminded me of this poem:

Jeffrey McDaniel
"The Quiet World"

In an effort to get people to look
into each other's eyes more,
the government has decided
to allot each person exactly one hundred
and sixty-seven words, per day.

When the phone rings, I put it to my ear
without saying hello. In the restaurant
I point at the chicken noodle soup.
I am adjusting well to the new way.

Late at night, I call my long distance lover,
and proudly say I only used fifty-nine today.
I saved the rest for you.

When she doesn't respond,
I know she's used up all her words,
so I slowly whisper I love you
thirty-two and a third times.
After that, we just sit on the line
and listen to each other breathe.

Maybe because he also wrote this:

Jeffrey McDaniel
"Dear man whose marriage I wrecked"

If it's any consolation, when your wife took me
in her mouth, I closed my eyes and pretended

I was a piece of wedding cake. I was the instigator,
bringing her flowers so often her co-workers

nicknamed me carnation hands. At night, I'd look
at the stars and slither my petals through her hair.

It was like we were on Mars--me staring over
her skull at one moon, her gazing at another.

What I'm really trying to say is I tumbled into her
arms like a thousand reluctant dominoes.

I mean, isn't it odd--how you can buy a lap dance,
phone sex, or blowjob in a snap, but can't

pay a person a dollar to just sit next to you
on a park bench and simply hold your hand?

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]cette_vie
2009-03-23 05:35 am UTC (link)
You sent me the first one before. I do like them.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

(2 comments) - (Post a new comment)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…