Tuesday, April 14, 2020

GloPoWriMo Day 13: Bodysnatcher

Prompt: Today, I challenge you to write a non-apology for the things you’ve stolen. Maybe it’s something as small as your sister’s hairbrush (or maybe it was your sister’s boyfriend!) Regardless, I hope this sly prompt generates some provocative verse for you.

I'm not doing very well with this whole writing thing, given life keeps getting in the way. I'm half of a mind to just give up entirely, but today the prompt made me think of the grave robbers, the bodysnatchers in old England where they'd dig up bodies for doctors who needed them for medical experiments.

So I decided steal myself.


Bodysnatcher

I am the traitor, the Hanged Man:
I am a byword, society's upside-down fool
A mind reduced to a rattling skeleton
Hanging on a gibbet
Gutted from stem to stern
My heart a shriveled apple core
A cautionary tale on display.

I cut myself down and steal myself back:
My thoughts, my words, my space, my voice
The things I’ve been told to bury, to hide
Sealed up in a coffin of shame.

(Single, stupid, ladylike, ugly -
Every adjective a nail in the lid.
Judgements weigh me down like lead.
I sink. I am dead weight.)

I am a guerilla, a bodysnatcher, a rogue.
I am no thief – I take back only
What’s been stolen from me.

I reclaim my life.

I mark the shape of me in the air
And cut space for this body, this me:
I take up room, I stand
Forcing you to see me -
An inconvenient obstruction
In an elevator door
Holding your mind open
Preventing it from closing.

6 comments:

Kerfe said...

Keep taking up room!

Good to hear your voice again.

The Bizza said...

This is exceptional writing. I'm glad you're here. Claim your space!

Syl said...

Love it!!!
Can keep reading it!!

Elizabeth Boquet said...

(Single, stupid, ladylike, ugly -
Every adjective a nail in the lid.
Judgements weigh me down like lead.
I sink. I am dead weight.)

Perfectly-horrific-but perfect.
Don't give up, please!

Unknown said...

Some good images here. I feel your teeth in this poem.
Snatch away, it's your body
No matter what they tell you
Take it back and take your shape
in the air
in your body
any shape you want
its your right
bite back
xx
btw

Manja Mexi said...

Wow! You've been doing remarkably throughout, I see. This is such power. You take things for yourself, toss them up and then they fall just so. Power!