The Real Trick

Alright, I've just about whittled everything down to this. This thing right here.

THIS.

 

I call poetry an addiction. I call it that because it's a thing that I've done for so long, a thing that gives me so little joy and yet I continue doing it, a thing that I've tried to stop doing before but could never quite manage the big sleep.

 

I turned 33 two days ago.

I quit writing almost two months ago. 

I axed my social media shit yesterday.

 

I think...

 

I think I'm cured, doc.

 

All that's left is this. This thing right here.

THIS.

 

I've spent so much time afraid of leaving nothing behind

that, in exposed panics, I've left everyfuckingthing behind.

A rotten heap of myself. Without rhyme or reason. 

I think I'm done being afraid of how unremarkable I am. 

 

And now. The real trick, I think,

will be to destroy this. This thing right here.

THIS.

 

When? 

I don't know. 

 

I've got two weeks of midnight shifts coming up.

I'd venture it'll happen then. 

 

Thanks for playing along. You. Whoever you are.

Write a comment

Comments: 2
  • #1

    Terry Mahoney (Monday, 21 March 2022 19:48)

    Mary, my wife, brought home your book
    for me,
    Pressing my mind to remember your kindness,
    once to us.
    Said: "Brittany gave us the tickets to that Kimball night.
    'Member? Now, another kindness! Her poetry.

  • #2

    Mark Chimes (Sunday, 20 August 2023 18:08)

    The really great thing about being unremarkable is that it opens up space to see others in a different light and provides opportunities to help others, often without them knowing. The best thing about helping people without them knowing is the joy you get seeing the effect of your support without the mudding of a relationship with pressure on the receiver to 'balance' things by giving you something back. Think of the joy you get helping your son in ways he is completely unaware of, and extend that to others. That will bring remarkableness to someone who is unremarkable, which we all are.