Week 461 (June 16-June 21) Poems Topic: Rattled

[C.P., Windrunner]

You have until the 21st of June to post a poem and from the 22nd to around the 28th of June, we’ll vote for which one we thought was best!

Please post directly into the topic and not a link. Please don’t use a poem previously used in this group. Only one submission per person is allowed.

Your poem can be of any length!

This week’s topic is: Rattled

The rules are pretty loose. You could write a poem about anything that has to do with the subject/photo but it must relate to the topic somehow.

[Sarah]

An Ode to Cassandra

Cassandra,
who plays like a young child,
Asking why she has autism,
Who is sweet both inside and out,
Who is as emotional as a young child.

Whose room was always a mess,
Whose hair was always on end,
Is happy, excited, lighthearted, and cheerful,
Yet she can’t go to school.

Who tells me to braid her hair,
Only to ask if I am jealous of someone else doing her hair.
Whose eyes are like the chocolate chips on a cookie,
You could get lost staring into them while talking to her.

Sleeping in strange rooms
In different places,
With her mother by her side,
Whose smile used to fill the room with toxic joy.

Is so sick,
Yet so healthy.
Her laugh echoes down the chambers of my heart,
And through her empty room.
It just rattled me ever so much.

Her door is kept closed, until we clean it up.
We tell the little ones she does not live down here anymore.
Cassandra, who hid behind the curtains,
And trees,

Who was a perfectly precious person,
Who always “went to bed,”
Calling after anyone to stay awake.
Calling high and low, high and low,
Until one of us goes.

Then she goes,
As fast as the wind blew,
Rattling us all,
Leaving her echoing laugh,
And her ever so bright smile,
To fill our hearts and memories,
Echoing in our heads.

Note: This is in memory of my sister Cassandra who passed away May 2nd, 2016.

[C.P., Windrunner]

A beautiful memory, Sarah.

[R.V.]

Title: Rattled and Stirred
Author: R. V. Mitchell
A Micro Poem

He was rattled and swirled
The world spinning and blurred
It’s not easy to be an olive
In a swizzled martini

[Garrison]

POET: Garrison Kelly
TITLE: Raised By Television
GENRE: Rock Song
RATING: PG for one F-bomb



VERSE 1
How many slurs are you allowed to use?
How many drugs are you allowed to abuse?
How many sheep are you allowed to confuse?
How many lives are you allowed to lose?
You watch the box, but never question it
You have a dispute, but never settle it
You never pick apart the stories you hear
Cave in to manufactured crises and fears

CHORUS
Raised by television
Rattling your vision
It’s now your mission
To widen the division

VERSE 2
Fantasy, reality, what’s the difference?
Fucked up adult, why the bitterness?
Nostalgic for your lost brain cells
And your depleted creative wells
Nothing wrong with a good story
Nothing wrong with living the glory
As long as you think for yourself
And not let your life spiral to hell

CHORUS
Raised by television
Rattling your vision
It’s now your mission
To widen the division

BRIDGE
Question everything
The lyrics you sing
The shows you watch
The life you botch

VERSE 3
Pick up a book and learn how to hook
The audience in for more than a look
Go outside and play Seek and Hide
Jump on the rollercoaster, go for a ride
Swim in a lake for as long as you take
Drive around town to musical sounds
When you go back to the glowing box
Keep your wits, be crazy like a fox

CHORUS
Raised by television
Rattling your vision
It’s now your mission
To widen the division