"Two wrongs may not make a right but a thousand wrongs make a writer.”

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Something Nobody Will Want To Read

You have only to look around you and you’ll see
blood being spilled, in the most playful way,
just as if it were champagne.

-Dostoyevsky 1864

We can’t afford to stay warm.
Christmas lights strung around the porch
and across the buffet and above the cupboard
lift the spirit but don’t give off warmth.
The register beside my chair with a wee amount of heat
is all I have
and a feeling like broken glass.

I broke the votive candleholder
into a million pieces
Blood red shards of glass
scatter across the floor
and fly under the piano.
Now they’re embedded in the tongue and grove
of a hand-laid floor
(my father on his knees
when he was young).
A feeling like that.

We’re weighed down in a wasteland of war—
scavenger of commodity.
Libraries languish and roads crumble,
and children go without textbooks
so we can spill blood like champagne
and march in step.
Flags wave grandly from gated communities
and likewise weakly from a doorjamb
in front of the hovel without heat
for heroes in uniforms
with flags sewn on backwards.
A feeling like that.

13 comments:

Wine and Words said...

I've gone back to vegetarian, as it's cheaper. I say it's for my health...so they won't feel worse, but one extra pork chop costs dollars..DOLLARS!!!, and rice and beans is cheap. And Christmas lights cost money, so we didn't hang them this year. The electricity, you know?

A feeling like that. And it goes global, like it's own viral scream and all that is without gets magnified. I don't want to be stuck here.

Tricia J. O'Brien said...

I see you've opened a vein again.

Bloody beautiful.

Yvonne Osborne said...

Annie,
Ah,yes. what a way you have with words....a global viral scream. And one thick pork chop from the man's table would feed four children. I can see them licking their fingers. Thanks.

Tricia,
That would be funny if it was so not. What we all do, bleeding into the keyboard. Thank you for reading and being you.

Louvregirl said...

I like this. It hurts, but I especially like the line " A feeling like that." It resonates well (with me.) Not true- about nobody wanting to read this.

Unknown said...

I wanted to read it

Anthony Duce said...

What you say has been the norm for centuries…. But you say it very well.

Jemi Fraser said...

You paint such vivid images - such power. Nice.

Jonas said...

Ironic, isn't it, that this is something everyone should read and contemplate and rebel against!?!

Rosaria Williams said...

A great poem/commentary everyone should read.

Yvonne Osborne said...

Louvregirl,
Thank you very much. I'm glad you read it.

Taryn,
Aw, thanks. Very much.

Tony,
Some things never change but it seems to be getting worse. But maybe every generation has felt like that. Thank you.

Jemi,
Thanks so much!

Jonas,
Thank you. That's nice, coming from you.

Rosaria,
Hi. Thank you for that. I'd like to think words can make a difference.

Anonymous said...

Well, someone has to say it. Glad the Muse picked you.

Suzanne Casamento said...

Beautiful.

Yvonne Osborne said...

Sarah,
Thank you.

Suzanne,
Thank you for reading.