birthday

another birthday

and as usual

he awoke

thinking

about the

three dead mice

and how the poor things

must have

fallen into the can 

and starved to death

 

one 

had probably survived

a bit longer 

for it found

salvation

in the tissues

of the others

and when

he cradled it

in his hand

the creature

broke apart like

a puffball and

the brown spores

living smoke

filled his nostril

and went about 

their important 

business

 

Reviews

[bookworm]

You're poetry should come with a frigging warning sign....something like, "No skin, no s**t, no service". You are such an endless chamber of curiosities, mister....I end up feeling a bit like a concerned mum after I read your "unique" contributions.....as in, "Oh geez...honey, are you sure everything's okay? You know how I worry." :) However, as I've mentioned before, somehow you convey these ideas in fascinating, albeit disturbing, meaty prose. Pretty effing cool...Happy birthday if it is indeed your's. If not, let them eat cake...with worm guts and rat urine in it.....:)

[DIVYA]

What a birthday present!
Truly delightful to read!
I love your poetry.

[Lisasview]

First read of yours and I did like it... Even though it is rather weird...
I think of it as metaphors of life..
Not sure if you planned it that way?
Lisa, now in Spain

[Ciara]

Hi Frank, this curious poem has me thinking about how precious life is. We endure, if we are lucky.

[Beccy]

It is a sobering thought that most insignificant little pebble on the beach will outlive our human span by an uncountable number; but that of course, is to ignore those 'little brown spores,' going about their important business of rebirth.

Really enjoyed this.

Beccy.

[. serah .]

-- ah... i'm reading this as an epic... -- it seems to me that the speaker in this poem is raising the issue of how perplexing it is that humans live for so long while other beings have a rough time surviving... -- and i think to question this issue is to question the universe itself... for it's all about which being lives and for how long... (in a sense)...

and

-- it's happened again... this post reminds me of a kinda nursery rhyme i was taught centuries ago (when i was still in kindergarten)... "three blind mice, see how they run, they all ran after the farmer's wife, who cut off their tails with a carving knife, did you ever see such thing in your life, as three blind mice"... and it also reminds me of what my father said when i wanted to invite my friends over for my 13th birthday... he quoted a proverb and said... 'fools give feast and wise men eat'... -- that was the end of the party before it took off... -- both these things are things i haven't thought about in at least two decades...

[...]

Yep, that's exactly what I think about on my birthday...lol Life must go on,anyway, anyway at all. You certainly are unique. I like unique :) Thanks for the poetic alchemy, my friend. Hahaha

[sienikeha]

ha! brilliant. lol

[Penlady]

The gift is, I guess, in the eye of the beholder. Or the nostril. The mouse or mice had had his undying attention and died anyhow.

[J]

you definitely have "way" frank. it's not a 'way' that goes down easy mostly as your affinity for showcasing the repulsive and indelicate of this life tends to curl my upper lip. but somewhere there mostly seems to be a kernel of creative thought involved in your musings that offer a modicum of redemption. i like bookworm's comments -- she got it right on.

so happy birthday to you. and may you find used and crusty tissues in the most surprising places. ;)

[Philip Smith]

Hauntingly simple and to the point, and made a point. We're both from Quebec so I had to like it. lol Very Good