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- You’re Fired!
- Spoiled and So Special
- Four Dagger Notches
- You Were Kind to Me
- Held up a Mirror
- Gossip for One
- Here is Wisdom
- Talk Faster
- Off-beat
- The Book I Read
- No Espresso Compliments
- Until Fuzzy's Finished
- Ground-level Sky
- Cooking a Word Curry
- Quite Enough
- He's a Pineapple
I took my firing rather well until the shock-induced bravado wore off. Then I slid into despair and self-doubts, tangling myself in in coils of "what if's". I wrote these exaggerated poems as a release valve for my emotions. They worked. Now I feel that I can freely and honestly forgive the one who wounded my pride and move on with my life.
How does it feel to be fired? To quote Abe Lincoln when he was
asked how he felt about being President,
"I feel like the man who was tarred
and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail.
To the man who asked him how he liked it he said, 'If it wasn't for the honor of the
thing, I'd rather walk."
You’re Fired!
Summarily escorted to the sign marked
"Unemployed”,
I never saw the trap door in the floor.
Brushed the cobwebs off my chinos,
Grabbed my paperweight and purse;
Oh, no! I left my Gideon's in the drawer.
Well, whoever takes my place
Is going to need it.
12-22-04
Held up a Mirror
I held up a mirror to someone else
and saw myself today.
A magnifying mirror,
full of frightful blemishes.
I saw my doppelganger.
But I'm not that bad, am I?
I am worse.
I'm accustomed to my own mirror
and see in it the lies I tell myself.
But to see my painful flaws in someone else--
ice water on a drunken head.
lori fiechter
10-22-04
You Were Kind to Me
A stranger in a land unknown
And unfamiliar to me,
I stumbled, wandering lost and low,
Feeling stupid, timid, slow,
Wall-papered in my own mistakes
For all the world to see;
But you were kind to me:
With
a smile warm and welcoming,
A steady hand on my trembling shoulder,
Due season’s word, most timely spoken.
And I will not forget
My life-line, lavish grace-bestower.
You were so kind to me
And I will not forget.
Lori
Fiechter
12-11-04
that I should know how to speak a word in season to [him that is] weary:
Gossip for One
It's so hard to find good listeners
unless you have good gossip:
"If word got back to her...!"
--Don't worry, I'll not tell,
my lips are sealed.
Ah, but the itch to "share"
is just too very strong.
lori fiechter
10-22-04
Here is Wisdom
I have enough to share
if you've brought a container.
A wheelbarrow, perhaps?
Well, then, a bucket?
A saucepan?
A teacup?
(impatiently) A thimble?
Well, finally!
And look, there's room to spare!
lori fiechter
10-22-03
Talk Faster
He looked bored again
So I talked faster,
with no pauses, except to draw my breath.
I tried to be more interesting, entertaining;
He was no longer making eye-contact.
I through out the stops,
gestured madly, laughed nervously.
He looked for Exit signs.
There was a Yield sign;
I never saw it.
I never thought to yield the floor;
It never dawns on me to listen.
lori fiechter
10-25-03
Off-beat
("comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak")
She never learned the social mores
hat in most folks are ingrained
and so they call her "strange".
While the others find their places,
perfect timing, perfect rhythm,
She's the one with tangled feet,
never catching up the one beat
she had lost.
But she tries.
And though she could step
out of line and march alone
she needs the company of those
who do not wish for hers.
lori fiechter
10-25-03
Four Dagger Notches
With the fresh notch in her dagger!
See her smile,
All-triumphant,
See her swagger.
Self-satisfied and smug,
Mirror, Mirror,
Still the best
For another challenger has failed the test.
Really, no one else compares.
Why do all these mortals dare?
So tiresome—
We have been most unimpressed.
Instructions for the minions:
Wipe the blood and scrub the floor;
Disinfect the dungeon door;
Toss the bodies in the moat;
Weigh them down, in case they float.
12-22-04
The Book I Read
and now re-read today
is not the book I read before
in any sort of way.
It's not that pages yellow,
It's that the reader aged.
10-25-03
No
Espresso Compliments
She can't drink one
full-strength, undiluted
so he stirs in a
spoonful of qualifiers,
balancing out the positive
with negatives
So that it doesn't
taste
like a compliment at all.
It tastes more like medicine.
(No wonder she spits it
out.)
lori fiechter, 10-21-03
The long-haired, black stray who not only came to
stay, but to rule.
Malevolently.
until Fuzzy's finished
or unless she deems to let him.
Throne or no,
the queen eats alone.
Because she is fierce and fearless
and of a fickle temperament.
Touchy, with lightning paws.
Greedy, with deadly claws.
lori fiechter
10-10-03
Where does the sky begin
Is there horizon I can touch?
Why must sky be over-high?
Out of reach, it pulls away from earth.
Sky is more than air.
Air, I have--I clap my hands in it,
breathe it, fan it--
But sky is just too high.
10-25-03
Cooking a
Word Curry
I can't make a word curry
with only salt as seasoning.
I need more words,
better words.
I want mouth-tingling beauty,
Not another kind of salt--
sea salt, kosher, coarse or fine;
it's still all salt
and it all tastes the same.
I need cardamom, chilies, cinnamon,
cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel seed,
fenugreek, mace, nutmeg, red and black pepper,
saffron, tamarind and turmeric
But what I have is:
spiceless curry,
an eggless soufflé,
and a rice-less pilaf.
lori fiechter
10-16-03
Spoiled
and So Special
I
don’t like her! I don’t like her!
You
must make her go away!
I will whine and pout and tattle
Till
you let me have my way.
You
must buy me pretty presents
And
never make me share;
You won’t tell me to be nicer
You
won’t tell me to be fair;
You
will tell me I’m important—
That no one else is so important--
And no one else’s feelings matter anyway.
You’ll do just as I say
So I’ll
be happy all the day.
And I know you want me happy,
And
you’ll do just as I say.
Lori
Fiechter
12-22-04
Is that all you're going to say?
No, it was quite enough--
I just wanted to know when
I could stop pretending to listen.
Now, I will talk and you can
do the pretending.
lori fiechter
10-10-03
He's a
Pineapple
Outside prickly,
spiky, rough--
Are you sure the inside's sweet?
More likely, it's
brown-splotched, fermented--
or hard and green and juiceless.
But I'm not close enough to tell;
Not close enough to smell.
And I think I'll stay
not close enough.
lori fiechter
10-11-03