Grex Poetry Conference

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Grex Poetry Item 50: My Enemy, Myself
Entered by bookworm on Mon Mar 8 22:19:45 UTC 1999:

Another person lives in me.
Someone I never knew existed.
She carries a knife--
Cuts my friends, family--
Hurts people.

I fight with her;
Try to restrain her,
Keep her in her iron cage
Where she lived before I knew her.
I try to keep her chained and gagged;
Try to keep her veiled from sight.

But I never knew how strong she'd become;
Stronger every day,
Her knife sharper.
She will no longer be caged, chained, hidden.
She shrugs these things off with ever greater ease

I must become strong as well,
Build my cage out of stronger stuff.
Force her to wear a leash.
Not an easy task.
She is already too strong.

             -8 March, 1999

7 responses total.

#1 of 7 by lumen on Mon Mar 8 23:13:00 1999:

I told Julie I relate.  I interpreted it as she intended to express 
herself, but she has told me already that she has gotten several 
different interpretations.

She has somewhat of a little following, because she is quite unabashed 
about sharing her work.  This one has been well appreciated so far.

#2 of 7 by toking on Tue Mar 9 13:17:34 1999:

I like this, very slick

my one suggestion: let her out, just keep a tazer handy

#3 of 7 by bookworm on Thu Mar 11 07:15:17 1999:

Oo.  Joe, that sounds kinky!

#4 of 7 by toking on Thu Mar 11 18:04:49 1999:

<rotfl>

#5 of 7 by arianna on Sun Mar 14 07:53:10 1999:

my only suggestion would be to strike the line, "Hurts people."  in the first
stanza.

#6 of 7 by bookworm on Tue Apr 13 04:32:09 1999:

Why for?

#7 of 7 by arianna on Thu Apr 22 22:24:08 1999:

I kinda like the sound of the stanza without it, I guess... it seems a little
redundant to my ears.  "of course cutting hurts," is the thought that first
zipped across the backs of my eyeballs.  *shrug*  if you like it, leave it;
it's not a huge deal whether it's there or not.  (I'm just over critical,
don't mind me.)

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