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It started in the jungle

 

I didn’t catch his face,

just the machete slash glint

inches away,

pendulum cuts spurting sap, polka dotting,

my mattress,

cold sweat thawing through bolt upright

nape hairs,

shards of bamboo splinter in my hair,

eyes streaming,

as fathomless whoops, wails and buzzes recede behind

feather memories, flapping through the bars in my head.

 

Finally a cloak drapes the parrot cage.

Silence.

 

Days, weeks, nights later,

the blackboard fingernail scrape of a voice in the dark,

chops air outside my door,

Ciaran the jolly Irish orderly flicks the lock,

thrusts my three strong Librium pot,

whistles ‘how are you?’

turns on the light

turns off tremor world.

◄ Dance

Flossing with Carlos the Jackal ►

Comments

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Shirley Smothers

Tue 28th Jun 2011 18:12

I don't comment on a lot of poetry. I don't know enough about poetry to make a lot of comments.
But I like this poem. It conjures up not only raw emotions but the physical pain that comes with addictions.

Good writing
Shirley

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Michael Scott

Sun 7th Nov 2010 17:27

Thanks Cynthia,

It's about detoxing from alcohol, pigmies, jungles and machete's all came to visit me and time ran forward and backwards. So 'It started in the jungle' signifies the start of things getting better for me. Thanks for reading.
Mx

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Cynthia Buell Thomas

Sun 7th Nov 2010 17:21

It is good, Michael, whatever the true source of the 'agony' is. From the title I think we are influenced to think there was a real, terrible experience in 'the jungle', but maybe not. The word 'jungle' is used as a metaphor for many ideas. 'pendulum cuts spurting sap' is great imagery, as is 'a cloak drapes the parrot cage' and 'feather memories flapping through the bars in my head'. The sequence of time seems odd: 'days, weeks, nights later'?

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Ann Foxglove

Sun 7th Nov 2010 10:10

I'm both impressed by and interested in this poem, I don't really know what is happening, and yet it comes across as being very real. It's good* that you've had lots of life experiences that most of us haven't had, and that you write about them. You have something different to say. xx
*I don't mean it's good that you had em if they were horrible! YOU know what I mean!

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