SEEKING MAGENTA (photo) & ON RABBITS AND WHIPPETS ("poetically licensed" dream narrative) by Roswila

ON RABBITS AND WHIPPETS

my good woman friend tugs me by the hand
excited to introduce me to the new folk she's met
whom I simply must get to know

I'm not at all inclined to meet anyone
but turn myself around so as not to cause a fuss ...
yikes! they're all huge dog racing fans!
why would my friend think I'd be interested?
doesn't she know me at all?

there's absolutely nothing I can say
about the sport, at least not pleasant as I have
only disturbing memories of a great sadness
as I watched pale whippets race
after a fake rabbit around a track

but to be polite (or more honestly put,
not to shame myself by revealing my poor
social skills) I ask one enthusiastic young
woman how she came to be
interested in this sport

as I do, I gesture with one hand and note
a strand of magenta wool hanging
from my sleeve: my favorite sweater's unraveling!

I don't even hear her reply as I focus carefully
on pulling the loose strand from around my cuff,
hoping that once I get home I can take the time
to find the root of the problem and fix it

but more and more magenta threads begin to flap
loose and while I wrestle with the proliferation
of circling strands, the woman friend who dragged
me here expresses her pique at how rude
I'm being and (her voice rising in pitch)
that I don't even seem to care
that she did it for me

I'm quite certain now that there won't be
anything left to mend by the time I finish
going round and round chasing
after illusory fixes


[poetically licensed narrative on a dream of 6-9-15. Calling this one a "poetically licensed narrative" is only partly a joke. I made the connections to the (at least partial) significance of the various images the way I find poetic ones. And that last stanza is a conscious expression of where I feel the total dream going, taking off from the implications of the dog race image. I'd say almost all of the pieces I've called narratives here have also been "poetcially licensed." BTW, that sad memory of seeing whippets racing is an actual very old one that I recalled in the dream. Photo "Seeking Magenta" (5-27-15 018v4) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

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until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; and TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT.