Monday, February 2, 2015

Hello, Anger

Poetry night, Drunkards. I should be writing about Oscar nominees, but instead, poetry. 

Preserved in Anger
by Chuck Baudelaire

Most of the time there is no anger.
There's not even room for anger.
Where would it go?
Not in the place where love is,
Oh no, not there.
Not in the realm of memory,
Which I have preserved in amber
So that I can extract its DNA someday
And resuscitate it
To live among the happy creatures
Of my someday present day future day.

So it must be that anger hides 
In the nooks and crannies of existence,
Between the cracks of things best forgotten
And in the gaps between now and then.
Yes, yes, I see it there now.
Hello, anger.
There you are.

You're in a pile of my clean laundry
That you dumped on the floor
Because you "thought it was dirty."
You're on the kitchen counter
With bits of cheese and yesterday's salad
And some globs of jam
That you assumed I would be perfectly OK with.
Because wasn't I always?
Didn't I always come in behind you and clean it up?
And by the way,
Didn't I always do your laundry
So that there was no question of what was clean?

Really, how dare I be angry at that?
I'm the one who changed the rules.
I'm the one who decided, against all odds,
That I deserved more.
Me, me, me. Always me.
I guess I'm just selfish that way.

I should just smile.
There's no room for anger.
Where would it go?
Where does it ever go?

Oh, there you are.
Hello, anger.

4 comments:

  1. Sometimes we all deserve that righteous anger, that bit of selfishness that keeps us afloat after spending all of our time caring for others. It's okay to say "What about me?" every once in a while. Don't feel bad for that- you've put up with a lot of shit. You deserve to have someone take care of you. <3

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  2. As I read this poem it sounded in my head like a song (yeah, poems really are songs, and vice versa). It just seemed like it could, maybe even should, be set to music.

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  3. Girl....this is amazing. I love this so much!

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  4. Excellent poem. So sorry that you were inspired to write it...

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You're thinking it, you may as well type it. The only comments you'll regret are the ones you don't leave. Also, replies to threads make puppies grow big and strong.