(17) Outside In

I observe
these frantic beings
come to stay
inside me.
I observe them
from the outside in.
Their moods change
so fast
smiling and sleeping and crying.
Sometimes they sit and stare
at black bugs
on lit papers
with only their fingers
still moving so fast
dancing.
Sometimes they skip
and hop through
my bowels.
I observe them laughing.
I love it when they clean
me inside out
brooms tickle me
scratch my stiff boards
but I most enjoy this
sucking kind of massage
they do afterwards.
Their music vibrates
through my bones
I observe them, like watching them
live.
They switch their vessels
every few years.
It’s like in that story
they watch in moving pictures
– even faster than their own lives,
centurys stuffed into hours –
different looks, personalities.
I don’t know
what makes them change
I observe.

 

Today’s prompt was to write a poem with an unusual perspective. I originally wanted to write from the point of view of a plant, remembering a poem I’d read at the beginning of the month from the point of view of a tree (which I can’t find anymore, unfortunately), but it turned into something different.

Heute sollten wir ein Gedicht aus einer ungewöhnlichen Perspektive schreiben. Ursprünglich wollte ich aus der Sicht einer Pflanze schreiben, nachdem ich zu Beginn des Monats ein Gedicht mit einem Baum als lyrischem Ich gelesen hatte, aber dann ist es eben doch etwas anderes geworden…