Downside Up by Karen MichelleI.
It's the road, not me,
that moves forward,
sliding on endlessly
into oblivion.
The setting is new
but the story
always the same.
Geek
slut,
loser,
miss popularity.
Dress me up,
paint my face,
tear my clothes,
smudge my lipstick.
You can change the outfit
but not the girl.
II.
The fresh waters run,
rippling over the stagnant blood,
the age old flesh and bone.
The moss is too deeprooted,
holds too tightly
to the body beneath.
Nothing, nothing
can make it
brandspanking again.
Nothing
can make it
sparkle like new.
III.
I am irony.
I am paradox incarnate.
I am everything and nothing juxtaposed.
I am torn.
I am haplessly stitched together.
I am starlight.
I am antimatter.
I am metamorphosis.
I am consistency in an augmenting world.
I am the very person you want me to be.
I am noone.
IV.
I'm not comfortable in my own skin
and I live in the darkness
not so much out of necessity
but of convenience.
Cushioned by the sacarine obscurity,
it's far easier to imagine
that I am everything
I want to be -
that the fabric binds
perfectly over flawless flesh;
that the cracks and blemishes
never existed here;
that the shadows fall
in all the right places;
that the words roll forth
in harmonious cadence.
V.
The scorching heat of
the high afternoon
singes holes in my
carefully constructed firewall.
The wounds are little more
than superficial but I
would rather sculpt
an ice maiden of myself
than bask in the sun
and boil my blood.
I am a skinless beauty,
I am no child of the light.
10/20/2003 Posted on 10/19/2003 Copyright © 2024 Karen Michelle
Member Comments on this Poem |
Posted by Olivia Weinkein on 10/19/03 at 06:02 PM this is just beautiful. sooo many lines caught my eye but as a whole, it rocks. right on. |
Posted by Rachelle Howe on 10/20/03 at 01:43 PM and you say *I* blow *YOUR* mind!? good god, girl, i'm sitting here, gaping, and scrolling up to read again. this is beauty, and truth, and sorrow, and pain, and a big ol' finger to the rest of the conforming world. bring it on. |
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