My undoing

I’m sure you’re all familiar with the saying, “A blessing and a curse.” Sometimes writing is like that for me. At times there is nothing I wish for more than to be just a regular Joe, without my gift. When words come hard. When everything that makes it to the page is crap. When I’m lying awake nights plotting stories. When I can’t stop writing, not even to eat.
Here’s another poem attempt from the Tennessee Williams workshop and reading. Salt Lake Community College staged an exquisite production of The Glass Menagerie. Unfortunately, I had to leave to catch the bus just before the end.
Please comment honestly and fairly.
MrW

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LIBRARY

I don’t eat for hours
I sit with pencil and paper
or next to the machine
fingers twiddling
waiting for one of those people
to say something
to do something—anything.
As they undo me,
I can always undo them
later.

I don’t sleep for days

I lay with them

listening as they tell

about their day begging

to exist in our world

if only in some brief book

on some hidden shelf

in that dusty old library

they tore down last year.

I cannot work
I cannot eat
I cannot sleep
I cannot live
I cannot love
I love them
I live for them
I sleep with them
I work for them.

To exist in this world

if only in some brief book

on some dusty shelf

in that shining new library

they built last year.

I will resurrect them

as they undo me.

I can always undo them

later.