Protestations

They say depression is repressed anger

but it makes as much sense to say

that anger is repressed sadness,

since anger is so much easier,

making it someone else's fault

and not my own.

A weird kind of power

comes from this,

an energy to move against

the forces of gravity,
the forces that win in the end

because, like soldiers

they take their marching orders

from somebody else.

So I keep pushing

for as long as I can

to maintain an upright position-

to lie down

means that I'm willing

to give up early,

and I'm not willing

to give up at all.

Meanwhile, the footsteps

going up and down the stairs remind me

that in spite of all

of my useless protestations,

I will soon be moving,

moving as I have always done.

A Fair Exchange

Here's kind of a "found poem" made from random statuses, generated by Status Bot, which scrambles words and sentences that I have actually used in prior Facebook statuses and comments:



A FAIR EXCHANGE

I traded a little jaunt into the latter showtime
of the vintage cars in the Vashon Highway in the sky
though I still think Seattle will do for a week of studio.
I traded a tarot reading for a guy
wearing a skirt and red tights,
hoisting a baby in one arm,
while snow was falling at the light coming over,
to get very far from tofu to take antibiotics.
I traded little paper cups and then went to tell them
that pot brownies sound like a good point,
while we were there at last.
I traded a regulator, because I can't remember.
I traded a vasectomy a long time ago.
I traded a sweet little swimming pool, though,
while looking around for mementos
of my own wanton self indulgence.
I traded a delicious meal of antibiotics.
I traded a benign child's beverage, dolled up with this photo.
I traded a couple of swims in a newt.
I traded a situation eerily similar to whatever I wanted
to consciousness without pain.
I traded a lot like a long time ago, already.
I traded a shock to me,
the moment has twelve houses,
and all of a quarter inch of money, even.
I traded a backpack, though, and Holland,
15 years ago still the clip,
soon to know that 54,000 people are here visiting.