07 November 2008

(untitled fear myth poem)

this is today's poem for my PAD group. my theme is fear, today's prompt was to create or use an existing myth.

usually wouldn't double post, but someone (robbie) might want to check it out...

(untitled so far)

Every ten-year-old is afraid
of ghosts and monsters,
because they don’t know any better.
And teens shudder at urban legends,
even when they know they never happened.
But eventually, people see how silly
all these crazy stories are,
and outgrow the effects of folklore.

Now that I have grown up,
its time to dispel the myths;
demons do exist, but not like the
campfire tales we hid from as kids,
and no amount of covers can save us
from them—
Spooks in sheets are scary things,
but spooks in black suits who snoop
and defy our liberties are what really
frighten me.

Frankenstein’s beast, with pieces
of every poor soul beneath a headstone
had no chance at being loved.
But at least he didn’t try to hide
from the citizen’s cries,
like the lies and shady deals
intertwined in every collaborative
Congressional bill.

Dracula, with no soul,
survives on the lifeblood
of others, while dining in his
castle all alone.
With resigned honor he reigned,
unlike the vampIRS of
today, who choose to live
on what runs through our veins.

You’ll run out of breath,
trying to summon Bloody Mary
from the mirror; nothing appears
when you call there, no matter
how many times you stand
in the dark and whisper,
“Medicare, Medicare, Medicare….”

Haunted houses have hundreds of years
of terror in their walls.
But the Houses today boast only
Fifty-five and Sixty—average age;
those numbers make my skin crawl.

Some myths, even still, are
supported by the powers on the Hill.
They even commissioned the
Department of Ignorance,
to keep us off their trail.
And to feed Cerberus,
the Three-Headed mutt,
entrusted to guard the River Potomac,
so no one can crack the mask
that hides truth, and lies,
all at the same time.
You’d think their resources could
afford a more convincing disguise.

I was that kid, afraid of many things
that go ‘bump’ in the night.
And still am, sometimes,
lying alone in bed without a light.
But if someone asks,
“Are You Afraid of the Dark?”
I’ll say, “I am, but only
when I’m watching C-SPAN.

3 comments:

Clockworkchris said...

Let me be honest and say at just the glance at this I was like "NO, he is actually gonna mention vampires and frankenstein in the same poem"...but then I read it. You truly have a way with words. I was never afraid of that stuff as a child, and fortunetly for me I don't pay any attention to news or politics at all (besides the election because that I did care something about and could not escape.)
I was about four or five when I had my last nightmare and I always won at the Bloody Mary mirror thing, but I didn't realize until I was an adult that it referred to the Virgin Mary. I was not polite.
The true fear I supose would come from C-span, Congressional bills-this war we are having trying to be the world police scares me because my neighboring city is full of about 40 1000 ton mostrous buildings full of oil or gas that are so the prime spot in NC on this coast line to drop a bomb.
Being in the mental health field, medicaid, close to medicare, pays for all I do and just keeps getting cut back for all those who are much too ill for anything else. Dissablility is set for auto-denial on first try to make sure you are serious about it. You made me think, way past my bedtime (I am totally a morning person and it's nearly midnight). Very good blogging.

jared davidavich said...

i was a scared kid, of a lot of things, and some things still irk me, but knowledge is integral in overcoming some fears (non-existent things, fears derived from the anticipation of harm, etc...)

in a sick twist of irony, the scariest things require knowledge. ignorance truly is bliss. i envy some people around me, even as they anger me for being naive. i think that is the worst type of fear...the fear of something you see coming a long way off, and are helpless to fight.

oh, and i just got around to 'famous or not'...great poem, i left a comment, hope it makes any sense at all, very tired tonight.

thanks again, good luck with your poems and nano this weekend.

Robbie said...

very clever mr. jared david. If my brain weren't so fried from a weekend of debating national policy issues this comment would have more substanance. I will get back to this after a good nights rest.

In the mean time... If 'spooks' (I wont go into the meaning of this choice of word) in black suits deneying liberties scare you I would say equally scary are spooks using our own society to plan and execute terrorism in America. Finding the balance of libery and security is a tricky thing.

Indeed congressional pork is a scary thing, then of course it is not so scary when the pork is for issues we care about like emmission capping or other such unpopular inititives.

We could argue that the IRS sucks the money out of citizens like vampires do blood, but is it not the basis of a government to have the legitimate authority to tax and regulate, and to enfore those two powers. Without collecting taxes government could not protect us or solve the collective action problems we can/won't solve on our own, and that the free market can't solve.

For the final two I won't try to be clever. Medicare is circling the drain, but our society also sets elder care and health as a priority and if you think about the cost of treatments and drugs in relation to our parents and grandparents ultimately I am glad it is there. And old people run the country thats just how it is partly because our country is getting old in general.

sorry for bad sentence structure and grammar, I am tired and I have to go write a paper. Again, well done sir, I will talk to you later.