Horror for Newbies

New Poem: I Need to Switch to LEDs

Hi, friends! It’s been awhile since my last update. I don’t really have any news to report on the writing front, besides all the stories and poems I have out on submission waiting for responses. I should have a tiny story published at some point this year, and I’m still waiting to hear about a poem that was accepted last year. Publishing can be like that sometimes, and after the whirlwind of stories sold and published in 2022, I need to remember to be patient.

One thing I’ve been enjoying lately is just to get my words down in some poem-shaped thing, either while outside a café writing longhand or tinkering in a Word Doc on my computer. We’ve had a busy few months with the end of the school year and my youngest graduating sixth grade. All the busyness of the season made me pause enough yesterday to really analyze how I’ve been functioning through the overwhelm. And from that pause, I created a poem known as a “concrete poem” or a “shape poem.” I love it when writers write text that “fits its container,” so to speak, and I wanted to see if I could do it, too. This poem, with its run on sentences and lack of punctuation, feels like what anxiety might look like in visual form, and that’s really the only content warning I think it needs.

I Need to Switch to LEDsThere’s a lightbulb in a space upstairsThat flickers and blinks at the end of its lifeAnd I would change it but I need to remember thatOne kid has a test this week one kid has an appointmentI have an appointment or two or more my spouse is workingLate again what am I going to do about dinner what are we goingTo do about the summer oh and there’s a permission slip that needsTo be signed and someone needs money for something somewhere andThe dishes need washed the laundry needs switched the floors need sweptSwept the dog needs walked the lawn needs mowed the laundry needs folded the mortgage needs paid the credit card bills are due the utility bill cameThe weather is supposed to be warm so make sure the kids have shorts there’s a gift I need to buy for a birthday party wedding shower anniversary partyHoliday party someone needs picked up from school or someone needs tobe dropped off somewhere or someone needs to go to therapy or I needto go to therapy or I should spend time with my spouse or my friendsor what is that is that a new mole or is that a gray hair is that aperiod cramp is that another rejection in my inbox is myback going out again did my heart just skip a beat or isit something else I should make an appointmentwith my dermatologist gynecologist internist all the-ists are my kids okayare my friends okayis my spouse okayam I okay is theworld okayis itThe stoplight turns green and the lightbulb upstairsBurns bright enough to remind me to drive on

That’s all I have for now. The summer is about to start for my kids, and it will be a busy one for all of us with some moments of downtime here and there. I hope you all have a fantastic May, and I hope you’re able to take some time to pause and breathe and enjoy it.

As, always, thanks for reading.

A. Cook

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Published on May 18, 2023 07:18
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