This is my own experiment I started when I worked as a cashier at a Whole Foods. I would write small poems in my notepad. I would stand there and just jot down little poem experiments by starting a series all the same way.
This small series is "If I lacked...". It's fun. It's a gas. I recommend series. It helps you explore subjects you're still working on. Or it gives you license to use the lines you cut but love. Here's this. Also, I'm going to post our last Army Husbands today.
No Obligations
If I lacked obligation,
all funerals could be any funeral.
I would eat meals just me.
I’d have all time,
a numberless watch.
I could hold my own hands at movies.
I’d float along never saying
You look pretty or You are correct
because I wouldn’t have to,
because the social construct of compliments
would have no bearing.
No eyes would need contact,
all empty seats, all items in stores
are mine and never not mine.
Forget voting, forget presents,
I would keep no holidays
I wouldn’t believe in labor, in soldiers,
everyday I would celebrate my independence.
I would plow through birthdays,
no reason to celebrate me or the former womb.
Any call would merit equal import.
And all nights would be the same
nothing as all nothings in my life.
I would say life and not know it.
I would ponder words and stop speaking.
I would sift through thoughts and discover
no reason to keep at it.
Living would be sound,
zeroes, holes within holes.
This kind of made me think of Penelope. She doesn't have to like the zoo but can totally want to feed a goat and cows a week later. She doesn't have to pay attention to you until she feels like shoving something in someone's mouth and you happen to be close. Her preferences change daily yet she tells no one. She can be excited to see you and show it by jumping up and down near you, rather than hugging you. I don't think she has a concept of days just buildings--this is my school, I go to class; this is church, I eat fruit snacks in a narrow seat and then play in the nursery; this is Nama's, I eat m&ms here and watch bad disney movies and try to feed a dog. Right now she is playing with toys in the shower making her own chorus of raspberries and vowel sounds. She is a great snuggler... when she wants to snuggle. I will say that I do not feel that her life is bleak like this poem especially ends.
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