(I’ve been attending a monthly open mic poetry reading, with the insistence that I write something new for each one, and put my name into the fish bowl to read—I still have very little experience letting other folks read my writing, outside of this blog, and I get very nervous in front of crowds… so of course, I’m challenging myself to do both here. I wrote this poem earlier this afternoon, but did so over the course of an hour or so, which makes it the sort of spontaneous poetry I tend to post in this space. Just… written a little earlier in the day than usual.)
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I take some time to feel around,
My fingers searching for some mote
Of metal, accidentally found
Within the pocket of my coat.
Ironic, that I’m wishing for
A coin to throw into the well.
Perhaps I’m taken by its lore,
The promise of some wishing spell.
I simply see no other way
To rise above this time and place.
I’m oh so tired of life’s fray,
The endless battles that I face.
If only coins and wishes could
Provide the answers that I seek.
If only they might do some good,
Desires in a world so bleak.
But here I stand, without a wish,
Without the funds to purchase dreams.
With nothing left, I feel foolish…
Yet even fools learn from extremes.
Perhaps the answers that I need
Might hide in empty pockets and
An empty wishing well. Indeed,
My wish can be my own command.
For if these wells and wishes don’t
Fulfill, and money cannot buy
Me happiness, then what they won’t
I’ll do instead. I’ll self-supply.
I glance around; I’m all alone.
I reach down, pick up what I see.
Into the well I throw a stone,
And walk away, my spirit free.
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Written while listening to Juno Reactor’s Beyond the Infinite (1995).
The Artist and the Engineer 