Friday, February 18, 2011

The Poetry Bus Gets Mean

120 Socks is driving this week & doing a fine job I must say. I hope I didn't leave the bus in too big of a mess. She gave us the choice of three prompts & I chose this one: I knew a woman who... You can read the other prompts here. But go here to check out all the riders this week.

Here's mine - yet another blast from my past. This one isn't quite so pleasant though.


I knew a woman who
wore bigotry like
a diamond ring that
she would hold out
to watch my reaction.

My eyes are
more of a window
to my soul
than most –
no secrets here
in these not
really baby browns.

That’s how I
know that
although
our skin was
the same color
and I wasn’t a
jewcatholicimmigrantgay
woman
she hated me
too.

Except for
that horror
in my not
really baby browns –

She loved that.

14 comments:

  1. Loved the line 'she wore bigotry like a diamond ring....'. People like that make your blood boil, they are relentless in their desire to upset. I'm sure your baby brown eyes are just wonderful!

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  2. Excellent navigation of the Poetry Bus!

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  3. Wow Bug, like this a lot - the diamond ring is an interesting choice, and you've got a killer ending too.
    Excellent

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  4. Woah! You really blew me away with this. "She loved that."

    I hope bigots have a nice little hot-spot reserved for them "down under".

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  5. Incredibly powerful. That third stanza really digs deep, racial hatred is basically a hatred of all humanity.

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  6. I like the diamond too!
    Some people have to have somewhere to direct their anger-flash it around.
    Nice work!

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  7. I try to stay away from women like that ~ men too. Your Ticket To Ride earned you a prime seat on the Poetry Bus!

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  8. HelluvaBus, Bug!

    Reminds me a little of my own ticket - since my parents read my blog, I hope they do not correctly identify themselves in my poem. I knew those people, but (thank goodness!) they have changed.

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  9. Yes, I love the diamond line too!Brilliant, but I also love the left jab to the chin at the end as well.
    Fablo!

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  10. Oh, I'm only going to echo TFE! Curses. Brilliant opening stanza and last line, and I enjoyed the journey between.

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  11. Very well constructed poem. The first two lines are a quite inspired bit of imagery.

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  12. That last line! Seriously I opened my not so baby blues wide and gasped! This is powerful - and wonderful!

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  13. jewcatholicimmigrantgay

    What's not to love? :)

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Thanks for stopping by - I'd love to hear what you have to say!

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