We want you to join
the contented herd -
grazing our chaff,
eating our feed.
We know that you feel
discontented, girl,
You want to fit into
whatever will please.
Don’t worry -
We’ll flatter your thighs,
your lips, your tits,
your sighs.
Down, down
to your dendrites,
we’re pruning your wires…
Today
I give myself
a low bar
for success.
Today it’s just about
waking up
and embracing
the miracle
that I can
breathe
air into
my lungs,
to release
the waste,
and load
my blood
with oxygen
that will nourish
all the cells in my body
without judgment
or comparison.
…
He reaches in
to shake
my hand,
like a crow
extending a claw
might snatch a nut
to carry away
and drop
on the pavement
for the cars
to smash.
And as he lets it go,
he locks his black eyes onto mine,
and backs
away,
as he calculates
how…
If I could put
my soul
inside his skin,
I might begin
to sense
the whole.
© Antoinette Nevitt, all rights reserved
Thank you to Georgia Lewitt for the inspiring prompt, Empathy. Thanks always to Kathy Jacobs and Harper Thorpe and everybody at Chalkboard.
I need a sip
of whisky
to remember
how he sang
to me -
but I still forget
the words.
© Antoinette Nevitt, all rights reserved.
Written in response to Christine S., MPP’s one-line poetry prompt, Nostalgia. Thanks to Kathy Jacobs and Harper Thorpe and everybody at Chalkboard.
I watch the ants
erupt from
the chink between the tiles
of the kitchen counter
after I sprayed
the seam with vinegar.
There must be thousands.
I thought we had an understanding.
But I should know better.
It’s impossible to compromise
with ants,
because you never know who
you’re dealing with…
History was not
made in a day.
It took four years
of pretending
your crazy leader
couldn’t crack
America’s reflection
if you looked
the other way.
© Antoinette Nevitt, all rights reserved
Written in response to Harper Thorpe’s timely prompt History . Thanks to Kathy Jacobs, everybody at Chalkboard and…
Finally.
Here we are
in the middle of the Big One,
where an older world
is pushed down.
Folded under.
Subducted.
Forcing cataclysmic upheaval
for the new one to rise up.
A moment comes around like that
to shake us up,
then folds the corner down
on this great land,
to…
Clean the house.
Fix up the house.
Find a new house.
Find a new life
in a new town
on a new planet
in a galaxy
far away…
…or maybe just
go back to sleep
until 2022.
© Antoinette Nevitt, all rights reserved
