AGAINST THE WALL (photo) & OFF HER BACK (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

OFF HER BACK

reduced only to my eyes and ears
still I'm aware of all that passes,
if from a dark distance:

the news spreads quickly that her closest
friends have succeeded in killing the man
who'd lived on her wide back for so long

yet not one person thinks to ask how
she's feeling after such an abrupt
separation, but instead all go right
to planning the man's funeral, quickly
getting hung up on what religion
he observed, if any

one large middle aged woman chimes in
with a red herring that the high leader
of a man's church always determines
who he's seen to be, not anyone else,
not even the person himself

I start to get upset at this further evidence
of how we manipulate one another,
then think "No matter!" as now not even I
am paying attention to the suddenly
cleaved woman

and she looks so naked, so utterly exposed
without her other half, her back unprotected
sans the defining mold of his hovering cover

she needs support and right away, after all,
things can change precipitously
when a host loses its parasite


[free verse poem on a dream of 10-12-15. I suppose this isn't technically a poem, but a narrative. Yet -- and, yes, I've addressed this here many times before -- that dream image itself is a metaphor. I.e., in the dream the man had been physically living on her back. That's not a metaphor I wrote into the dream as I worked on it. Not only that but I developed that image's description and fall out based on recognizing it was a concrete representation of the expression "Get off my back!" Also, I did write that metaphor in the last line into the dream scenario. So, I dub thee a (prosey) poem! Photo "Against the Wall" (5-7-15 10238e2) 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; TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT; and THE MARKER TAROT.