How Can You Not?
Have you felt it? The first fluttering butterfly wings of life? Then a baby against your heart. Counting of fingers and toes. The breathing in of the precious new baby smell. The skin soft as satin against your cheek. Downey hair tickles your nose. All followed by…. First Smiles. First words. First Steps. Your heart memorizes each milestone. Locks them in your chest for protection. To protect as this life you are blessed to love and keep safe. How can one of you not speak? Not SCREAM with agony an anger? Not SHOUT at the top of your lungs seeing children in cages? Children jerked from arms that have felt it too!
10 thoughts on "How Can You Not?"
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Did you intend for the pattern of this poem to look differently? I think so. However, if not, then the format create difficulty in reading although I like and identify with the content.
Beverley Byers-Pevitts
This is my first go at doing this lol.I differently need to figure out how to type the form right.Any hints would be helpful .
I thought the form was stunning. Lovely poem. It’s hard to format on this site, but I’m so grateful to participate.
I really enjoyed this!
powerful poem!
I like the physical presence of those first two lines, and toyed with reading down as well as across. Many moments where I liked the reading vertically more than the horizontal, which is kind of the magic of physical forms like this.
Wonderful accident, your lines breaking differently than you meant. I really like the brokeness, the opportunity to sit with each image and read them in many directions.
I agree with Pam. The way the form came out fits the subject matter, at least to me.
Powerful poem.
Yes, I imagine the poem might take different shapes depending on where you read it, like maybe there’s a difference between reading on a phone or a tablet or a computer.
Regardless, it has a really awesome, almost unnatural effect on the poem, like it doesn’t follow the rules of reality, which is very much in line with the message at the end.
Charming poetry with a punch!
Great work!