the thing itself and not the myth

Today, as part of National Poetry Month, NYC hosts Poem in Your Pocket Day. I wasn’t sure what to post for it, until I remembered one I posted at the old journal a few years ago.

I first saw it in the Breathe Poetry community on LiveJournal. It’s even more appropriate this year, which is apparently the year of Toxic Family Issues, if only in my own mind. It (as well as a peom of sorts by me on the same theme) lives after the jump.

::

And I’m Sorry You’re Being Such a Pain

Mom, I’m sorry
the city is covered with trash. That’s a great idea:
they should hire the people on welfare
to clean up the streets.
I’m sorry you saw
that woman’s dog go the bathroom
on the sidewalk, and she just left the mess.
Sorry my apartment has such high rent.
Sorry my window shades are not
what you had in mind. I apologize
for having so many wet dish towels
hanging up in the kitchen.
I know my favorite TV show
is not up to your standards. Sad
to say, my cat is smaller than yours.
I am sorry. You’re right: I really should
clean the underside of the piece of rubber
that fits in the sink drain.

–Jessy Randall

::

Yesterday I listened to this episode of “This American Life”. It features a lengthy story on cryonics, which was fascinating and also creepy as hell, but then it ended with a series of spoofs of “This Is Just To Say“.

Here’s my version:

This is Just To Say

I don’t believe in God
or in Glenn Beck
or that Notre Dame
did anything wrong

even though
I read your email
every day
and don’t respond.

Forgive me
I am the me I am
and not the me
you wish I were.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 9:31 am and is filed under poetry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.