green leafed trees

If I Could: Detroit’s Dangerous Things

If I could say 
What I wanted
Nobody
Would be 
Very well
Pleased 
With 
Me

I would say
Outrageously
Honest
Things such as
"Men are 
Not and
Can never 
Be women"
and
"The problem
With some people
Of a certain
Pale persuasion
Is that their
Expectations
Don't jibe
With their 
Reality."
And that
"A little
Inbred
Entitlement
Is a dangerous 
Thing"
And....
"I should know
I did forty five
Years of hard time
Unlearning
That insanity."

I would say 
Luxurious
Things such as
"I really love
Milk and cream
And brie
And meat
But I eat none of 
It because
I dislike
Suffering
In any form,
Yet vegan 
Cheese
Tastes like
Sin of the
Homemade 
Variety
And never
Reeled me
In."

I would revel 
In the fact 
I could say
"This is not me"
And 
"I don't want to
Because I just
Don't"
I would say "Can't
And Shan't 
And Won't."
I would say
Exactly 
What I mean
And when 
People hurt me
Instead of 
Quietly
Sitting and 
Internalizing
I would grasp the
Decadent rose
By it's deadliest
Thorn and say
"That is not it
And all.
That is not it 
At all."

Instead, I suppose
I should just be 
Quiet
And obedient
And sit in a 
Sodden
Saddened
Repose
Thinking of all 
The things 
I could say and
Do if I had not
Given up
The wild and
Angry
Ghost. 

6 Comments

  1. clcouch123

    Part of who we are is wild. And angry. We need to be in touch with what’s wrong in the world, and the wild and angry parts help us with that. If we’re all nice about it, what will change? Your verse is incisive and successfully referential to issues and what can be said about the issues (hmm) and language. Earnestly, I’ve told students about what I see as a hit-list of words: whom (gone), shall (going), and (soon) nearly any demonstrative pronoun except that. I shall be sad when they’re all gone (hah). The heat is a little less intense, not the humidity. I hope you’re doing all right with everything.

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