Sunday, November 25, 2012

Martyr

R.A.D. Stainforth...another beautiful read...

I hate you for being red,
for strutting your faux wings
like a backwards goose

bow-legged wood underneath
an all-too-erect history,

wings not wide enough
to protect, or hide behind.

It is time.

I drag you, carpet-groove,
to the front door, armrest down,

living room monarch,
out on the chopping block
like Mary, Queen of Scots.


tk/November 2012



62 comments:

  1. I love the poem - but I think I'd keep the chair :)

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  2. Woo-hooo, love the poem and the picture! Loaded.

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  3. It would grace any room, as would the poem any Slim Volume.

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  4. I wish I had kept my dad's, but c'est la vie. It was Red too.

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  5. The words go on well with the picture ...amazingly written !!!

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  6. wings not wide enough
    to protect, or hide behind

    Haunting phrase.

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  7. Love it! But I too would keep the chair!

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  8. You could always reupholster it! but very well said.

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  9. Think metaphorically, peeps...this one is not about a chair...

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  10. yes- the chair is just representing someone who needs to be pitched out the door!
    Excellent Tess! Love the line "strutting your faux wings"

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  11. Great poem but I like that chair!

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  12. loving the carpet grooves...and the pressure that build in you words..x

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  13. The picture was distracting...removed it...

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  14. Cor! Death to the chair! :)

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  15. Faux wings!!! I'm thinking a few more of our turkey parts should have been faux. We are still stuffed. Seriously ... your poem is stellar .. love the way your red chair takes on a persona of its own.

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  16. This was a fun read... to me at least. It's funny to thing someone would harbor so much animosity towards a chair. Your poem made me smile, and for that I thank you.

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  17. I have a sneaky feeling we were thinking along the same lines!

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  18. Death to chair is right! Fun, fun read Tess!

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  19. I love it! :-) That chair belongs to a queen of a particular dimension. I hope you found another seat more suitable for you. I mean; it is not easy these days. They are all manufactured. I have one myself, which is 20 years old, not as stylish as yours but wider, in pine and with fabric which I think is made to withstand a fire. Since it is 20 years old I believe mine is the only one left. And therefore I love it. It has got flowers on it. I use the seat when I watch television, which is one or two times a week ... Hihi! :-)

    Wonderfully written, your poem. But you know I insist on rhythm and rhyme. :-)

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  20. Love the 'backward goose', Thanks!

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  21. Powerful. And I'd burn that chair and salt the earth it was dragged across.

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  22. :) loved it.. got to love metaphors:)

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  23. Quite a bit of metaphor in this. Wouldn't want to be this one being dragged out to the curb!! Well penned!

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  24. Your poem is deliciously enjoyable Tess. Thank you for sharing.

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  25. I would also like to keep the chair...powerful poem..

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  26. Oh, what fun word play! Love S2 and S3 in particular.

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  27. I don't see a picture... was understandably confused. Since reading the comments, I think the light has dawned.

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  28. I'm lost. But I shall be found!

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  29. Martyrs are tough to live with and need to be banished.

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  30. Splitting up is so hard to do !

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  31. I cannot see the chair here, but if the same one that Bee posted about, understand you getting rid of it, though maybe I would keep it in a corner of a guest-room , for sentimental reasons, never mind that it is probably worth a lot of money today. Those slippy, high hard chairs of yesteryear.

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  32. ...Fine lines to depict a modern day scenario in a woman's life... Baterred days, i guess...

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  33. Poor ol chair!! Sounds like a husband/wife argument... like in When Harry Met Sally? The wheelwagon coffee table? In the end, the woman always knows... what stays, and what goes.

    Love the connection between red (for blood) at the beginning, and the chopping block for a bloody head at the end...

    You are one tough woman, Tess Kincaid... don't mess!

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  34. There comes a time when something must go, and this neatly captures that moment, conveying also the intensity of the determined speaker. I'm glad I am not on the business end of your wrath.

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  35. I like the notion of a 'backwards goose'! A graphic representation of the animation of the inanimate object.

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  36. I made the mistake of reading yours before I'd written mine. It mad such a great impression that I had difficulty getting it out of mind, but now I can come back to it and enjoy it with a clear conscience. Thanks twice: the prompt and the poem.

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  37. My Mum who is seventy loves her winged arm chair that she can easily get out of and raise her feet on its stool. During Eid, she sits on this chair and we do our traditional salam for forgiveness for a year of wrong doing or for upsetting her in any way.

    I did not think of this annual ritual in my family when I saw the prompt photo. I saw loneliness, hence my poem.

    But reading your poem,Tess, I am reminded to forgive that winged chair for any flaw for it brought us much joy.

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  38. I am always moved by RAD's readings but today especially. He conveyed masterfully the mise-en-scene your words crafted. I never saw in my mind once a chair as he spoke.

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    1. Thanks ReBelle ... I wasn't thinking of a chair when I read this ...

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  39. I can soooo relate to this Tess!! When my ex-husband and I divorced there was a recliner chair in the living room in which he always sat and did nothing! I wanted to drag it out to the yard and burn it as a ritual!! :-)

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  40. Dear Tess: Adore this "carpet groove". A very eloquent poem; very tactile and emotive...seems some things just don't want to go...:)

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  41. Unlike Mary's head, I think the chair is still salvageable. :-)

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  42. Oh that last verse is so clever. Perfect, as always.

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  43. I am gobsmacked that you could get rid of it, if we are still talking about the red chair from Sears! ;-)

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  44. This'll going my top 10 fave Tess and RAD entries. The way he says 'Mary Queen of Scots' and then bows his head.....magic stuff!

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    1. Thanks Helena ... this really is a fine poem and I found it hard to learn ... T.K. has a way with words ...

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    2. Thank you for adding magic R.A.D...

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  45. ah the end wasn't expected !

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  46. eloquent, elegant ode to a discard!

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  47. It has seen good times! I like the reference to Mary's demise making it an expectation of reality! Nicely Tess!

    Hank

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  48. I think I'd keep the chair and move it to a different house. There does come a time to part with things though. I like the Mary Queen of Scots chopping block line. It adds an interesting touch.

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  49. Thank you all, for taking the time to read, and leave a comment. It means so very much to me...

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  50. I just want to add i just read it again and still love it

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  51. Well, hell! That's wonderful!

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Inject a few raisins of conversation into the tasteless dough of existence.
― O. Henry (and me)