Thursday, March 29, 2012

barbed

Anna said she wears her life
like a barbed-wire necklace
and it is a line that's escaped me
for years -- the precisely brash
way i never could put it. because
it's like that sometimes, you know --
words as land mines, hearts as bombs,
a war over who loves the other more:
the battle to remain on the earth.
wearing life like a barbed-wire necklace,
pricking through cellophane skin at my neck
to get to the philosophy of me:
it makes me a liability.

i don't want to wear jewels
that cause my poor nerves to bleed;
grit exposed, i'd be
an unworthy martyr
even if i'm not just singing lines
to a disturbed song someone wrote
as she tried to speak for the
reflection in her mirror
and keep it from talking out of turn.

08.2011

[inspired by the line "i'll wear my life like a barbed-wire necklace so let's play truth or dare" in the song "Drink Me" by a lovely songwriter named Anna Nalick.]

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are my favorite lines:

"words as land mines, hearts as bombs,
a war over who loves the other more:
the battle to remain on the earth."

Unknown said...

thanks Jack! i so appreciate you reading and commenting. those are my favorite parts, too. x