They want us to look up
to them, always be available
to smooth the crooked creases
between their brows, tell
them nightly, cool sheets pulled
down, who is lord and king
of all that they survey. Their voices,
raised against pursed lips, put us
in our places, a single sonic boom
enough to collapse the thinning walls
we build to shield our hearts' too
-quick beatings from pricked up ears.
They count on strength in numbers,
spit-blackened boots and push-button
armored personnel. We bide time's
hand sure on own own, content
to wait until the palace dogs have
stretched and yawned.
© 2012 Maureen E. Doallas
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This poem is my response to today's photo prompt at Magpie Tales.
Write your own poem or flash fiction response to the prompt, using the image provided, then go here to add your own link and to read and comment on the other participants' contributions.
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13 comments:
What a fabulous respone to the photo prompt -- which looks like a tough photo to write to btw and you made it look so easy!
I had to go look at the photo prompt after reading this and now I understand better.
for awhile i thought it was about the primary elections...
Oh, wow. I guess I'm feeling mom-wounds today...imagining my son's wrinkle between the brow. But now, I must go see the actual prompt and figure some more. I love a poem that makes me do that. :)
ugh...nice word choices that set a very unsettling tone to this...the sonic boom voice to shatter the walls...the beatings...the needing to hear us tell them who is king...nice write maureen...
Wow, Maureen, it's been a while since I've visited your site and your work is as stellar as ever. You diction is precise, the form is inviting and not too cumbersome. The poem begs a second read simply because it is good.
http://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2012/01/08/lee-me-a-fantasy/
This was chilling to me...amd I love what you did with the "put us/ in our places" line breaks...
"unsettling" and "chilling": exactly as I meant the poem to be. Thank you!
It would be rare for me to interpret an image in any literal way. The photo for the prompt had a lot to do with what's out-size, mythic, hard and overbearing, and I tried to apply the sense of those to a perspective on relationships between men and women (as my labels indicate).
The title is great and the dogs lying stretching and yawning - as one observes life from a distance....bkm
very sublime take on the prompt. i like it.
days of cohan
nicely done with the prompt...thanks for sharing your words
I like it too!
Anna :o]
I like the image of the palace dogs at the end...
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