Self-Doubt
It seems possible, likely even,
that I’ve been wrong about everything,
or most things, for the past week.
Awe has been an awesome ma,
after all, and on second thought,
becoming a morning person
might prove achievable in ways
that becoming a sunrise might not.
I may have spoken too soon
when I said, with unearned confidence,
that the boy who gives away chocolate
samples sits in the dark, alone with
his thoughts of the girl who sells movie tickets
licking chocolate off her fingers,
that when he saw her it felt
like seeing a sunset through a hospital window,
and now my sources tell me that
the well-meaning asshole who bent
to pick up the snow-covered branch
was neither an asshole nor particularly
well-meaning, so here are some rocks
for you to throw at me for all I got wrong.
No? Not even if I remind you how
last week I said I loved your poem,
that its sheen made me hate my own?
18 thoughts on "Self-Doubt"
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Loving your sheen!
Thanjs!
The voice of this is just incredible. At turns humorous and heart-breaking. You walk that line so well.
Thanks Bill!
I laughed at this one! Thanks!
Thanks Dennis.
Ooo I love this! “becoming a morning person might prove achievable in ways that becoming a sunrise might not.” is so good! It made me chuckle. And the ending’s great. Well done!
Thanks Emily.
You had me at the get-go, but there’s something assonancey about the line “Awe has been an awesome ma,/after all” that I just love a lot. another thoughtfully crafted poem.
Thanks Shaun.
Impressed by how many compressed narratives you have woven into one relatively short poem, and we know all we need to know about them. Very cool.
Thanks. I didn’t know what to write yesterday, so I just contradicted lines from my poems written over the previous week. I think I actually like this poem better than any of those.
thanks for the nudge last week, about senyru. it’s always good to be able to unlock new forms.
You’re welcome.
I admire your gift (Katerina has it too) for writing poetry about writing (in her case not writing) poetry. You guys are children of Borges and Nabokov in that way. You postmodernists, you.
Thanks Kevin.
becoming a morning person
might prove achievable in ways
that becoming a sunrise might not.
The opening pulled me in, and then these lines! O.
Thanks do much!