Month: April 2020

#NaPoWriMo Day One

4am hurts like
blunted knives in your ribcage
cold fire in your veins
and crushed glass in your skin.

4am hurts like your ex.

Your heart and body aches
for reasons you don’t understand,
curled around yourself and convulsing
cursing and  breath,

Fists closed, arms crossed, jaw clenched
to protest and protect;
Every breath, every moment
feeling like hard time and hard labour.

Dull pain and panic burrow and settle
and scuttle and gnaw
like unwanted mice nestling
in your chest

Your body and soul is a punch bag
propped up against a worn out mattress
left out in the rain
ready for landfill.             

© Emilie C. Black, 2020

#PoeticAnswers 32 – Why Does The Earth Look Flat If It’s Round?

It could be described as
“A short-sighted view”
Which has caused the resurgence
Of the flat-earth theory.

For years, we’ve been saying
“The world is round”.
From Pythagorean proclamations,
All the way to Parmenides and Hesiod,
Scientific and mathematical minds
Across all of time have
Looked and succeeded to prove
That the world is spherical.

But now we’ve come full circle,
And we’re sinking in a downward spiral
Because it’s more than just gravity
Getting us down.

Logic has given way to celebrity
Scientologists and other idiots
Create endless conspiracy,
From the fallacies of evolution,
And vaccines ruining those in infancy,
We are in a world where progress
Has become the opposite of congress
And politics and facts are alternative.

Through combinations of science, mathematics,
And literal space travel we have literally seen
That the earth is a sphere.
I’m sorry if the correct use of literal has confused you.

Light travels in a straight line,
Despite who you are as a person,
I know you see straight.
Place a mark in the ocean
And swim to it while we hope the sharks get you
And then look back.
We won’t be there, because the land rolls away,
And, to be honest, we’re just not supportive.

You can search for the edge
Like a desperate U2 fan at Glastonbury,
But it will not be there.
You still haven’t found what you’re looking for.

But if you keep swimming, you might come around to the right way of thinking.

Question from Denise K. from Facebook

#PoeticAnswers 53 – Why Is The Sky Blue?

Some things are best explained by science
But today, it would be more fun if it wasn’t.
I’m not denying the truth by any means,
I understand the logistics of
Light particles and molecules
Traveling through the air
But I’ve already used up my
Metaphors regarding the visual light spectrum,
So today, let’s pretend nothing is real

It’s because in the beginning,
God used all the colours of the rainbow
To paint a world of many colours and cultures,
Radiant and vibrant, with so many hues and views,
Only to realise he forgot to use the blue paint.

Or maybe it’s because God
Tried to make the birds blue
With oil-based paint,
But they flew too close to the sky,
And it dripped and smeared
And that’s why the sky is blue

Planetary orbit is a lie,
And the Earth doesn’t go around the Sun,
Nor does the Sun go around the Earth.
But we yoyo in and out of
The inky black and blue of space
Which gets a bit brighter when it’s close to the Sun.

Because the sky is in a
Constant state of sadness,
But it’s not sentient enough to
Take the blue pills,
So it doesn’t know how to feel better.
It just feels clouded all the time.

Or are we all just colourblind,
And it’s not blue at all,
Just a colour that only the
Special and unique can actually see,
Secretly so much more,
Only visible during art and existential crises.

Question from Lynn P. from Facebook