Word Play

Whimsicality.

Am I a poet?

Uh… I don’t know.

I mean, I write poems a lot,

So, I guess so,

Even though this is a pretty sad excuse for one.

Are you a breather?

Yeah - a breather.

Do you breathe a lot?

Okay, then yes, you’re a breather.

I’m a breather too.

And a blinker, and an eater, and a teeth-brusher, and a take-a-shower-er…

Wait - sorry.

This is getting weird.

Okay, moving on.

 

I’ve been told that I explore darkness too much,

And that I should experiment more.

So, I decided to do some explorimenting

Inside my head.

But really, you need a flashlight

In places in here too.

 

The first thing I came to

Was a dark closet,

And it was like one of those funny, cliché movie scenes

Where the character opens the door

And this enormous monster roars in their face

And there’s a big whoosh of air and their hair and clothes get blown back

And they rock back on their heels and then fall forward a bit again once the roar stops

And they say something sarcastic and funny and close the door,

Only I couldn’t think of anything to say,

So I just shut it.

 

I started walking around again

And nearly got mauled by a howling pack of swear words

That came running past.

I nearly shouted one of them,

Which would have been really funny and ironic.

It probably would’ve jumped up on me

And started licking my face.

 

There was music playing inside my brain -

Usually one of those really annoying songs you hear on the radio

And then it gets stuck inside your head and keeps buzzing around in circles

Like a dumb fly that keeps banging its head against the window

When you’re holding the door open literally inches away.

But sometimes the music was a song that I’ve written,

Or at least, one I’ve started writing -

Most of them are just bits and pieces.

Beware of flying shrapnel.

I ducked.

 

Along came one of those horrible jokes I created,

The one only I found funny,

And I smiled and scratched it behind its uncomfortably-large ears

And watched it stumble happily away

On wobbly legs.

 

I kept walking,

And I passed all these random words and facts

That were just kind of bouncing around

Like big balloons

With things like “supercilious” and “quadratic equation” written on them.

I poked one that said “appendicitis” on it

And got sprayed in the face with a bunch of bacteria-infested text

Straight from my Anatomy book.

Eww.

 

There was a lot more floating around in that section,

But it was kind of boring

(Except for the movie quotes - those were awesome)

And it would’ve taken way too long to look at all of it.

Like, a million years.

Because neurons.

 

So I moved on, headed towards the captain’s quarters of my brain,

Towards headquarters,

Even though it’s not really divided into neat little quadrants like that -

It’s more like a bunch of loose change

All rolling around inside there,

“Penny for your thoughts”, and, yes,

Quarters.

 

Forgive me - 

That was completely punintentional.

 

And by the way,

If you missed out on “shut it” at the end of the third stanza,

Go back and read it,

And then laugh,

Because usually I’m the only one who laughs at my own jokes,

And it gets way too echoey in here with just one person.

 

But really,

I’m not the only person in here.

Sometimes you talk about having multiple people in your head

(“You” being general, because I couldn’t use “people” twice in the same sentence),

And I do.

It’s not an illness,

It’s just that

They’re there.

Some of them are nice,

And some of them are not.

Some of them are mine,

And some are someone else’s.

Not always sure whose -

It’s like some kind of…

Place where you meet a bunch of people and hang out

[insert accurate metaphor].

 

I met up with a bunch of characters from my story,

And it was really nice to see them,

Only some of them were wondering why their future selves were all dead in a corner

With some really horrible wounds.

It was kind of awkward,

And I had to tell them that I love them

And that I have to do this,

And that they should be honored,

Because they get to be Christ figures,

And I’m just a Roman executioner.

 

My characters were all chit-chatting it up

With some of the characters from books I’ve read and movies I’ve seen,

And it made me really, really happy.

Sometimes I try to count how many people are in my head,

But I eventually give up,

Because there are way too many,

And besides,

I’m not always sure who counts.

 

I went a bit deeper into my brain,

And now I wanted to turn on the flashlight,

Because some of the characters here are pretty shady -

And no, they’re not characters like from a book,

And this isn’t a pun about art class.

 

There were snippets of some of my darker songs playing,

The songs I could only share with my sister

Because she’s pretty dark too.

There were shadows hanging out near the walls,

Shadows that opened their red eyes

And sauntered over to me

And started walking beside me,

Grinning, eyes glowing,

Whispering in my ear

And making me cringe,

Only we were in my head,

So it echoed throughout the whole place.

The demons told me things

I wish I’d never known existed,

Thoughts I wish I’d never had,

Things I could never tell anybody,

Anybody,

Because being a monster

Isn’t just for alternative rock songs.

 

I kept walking, though,

Trying not to meet their wicked eyes,

And eventually I came to the central part of my brain.

It’s this little closet

Sitting in the middle of the room

With a single door,

And I turned the doorknob

And opened it

And stepped inside,

And it was really dark

And I couldn’t see a thing

Until I pulled the little chain dangling over my head -

Yeah, we’ve got some pretty old-school tech in here -

And this little light bulb flickered on,

And I’m just now realizing how cliché this sounds,

That a light bulb came on over my head

While I was in a tiny closet

Inside my own head

And the light bulb wasn’t an idea,

It was my conscience -

So maybe it wasn’t that cliché.

Just bear with me.

 

The only other thing inside the closet,

Which, by the way, is small enough that I can touch all four walls at the same time,

Was this old, corded telephone

Sitting on a little table in the corner.

The cord goes up and out through the roof -

Still haven’t figured out where exactly it goes after that -  

And there’s only one button on the keypad.

It says GOD.

So I pressed the button

And dialed GOD

And held the phone up to my ear

While the closet walls were shuddering violently

Because the demons wanted to break in

And tear me apart

And steal my soul

And also, interrupt my telephone conversation -

Rude -

And I was kind of scared,

So I just started talking

And I never really heard a response,

But I feel like it’s supposed to be that way.

So I put the phone down again,

And I opened the closet door

And yanked off the light

And sprinted out,

Back into the place

Where the shadows don’t go.

 

I hung out with my characters,

Pretended I could sing,

Avoided getting eaten

By the Calculus monster,

Went to the beach and picked up a few shells

That looked like lines of poetry -

Maybe I’ll do something with them later.

And then I finally decided

That it was probably time for me

To get out of my own head

And go talk to people,

So I left.

But I’ll be going back soon.

 

Got my head in the clouds

And the clouds in my brain,

‘Cause this is the realm

Where creativity reigns.

Author's Note

Fun fact of the day - when you start writing something that's stream-of-consciousness, you may end up unexpectedly spending an entire hour doing so. And you may end up with something like this. So be forewarned. :)

Reviews

[Inject Positivity]

Haha..... You are a genius trust me, how do you write such things? This was mind twisting, the reader might feel out of words and expressions after reading this, there are so many things that will make the reader feel "what is happening?".... This was funny, crazy and Sweet, I believe you are one of those rare writers in this website who can do such large poetic works... This was a brilliant piece of word play, funny as it gets... How much time did it take for you to write? Amazing... Hat's off to you.... Brilliant...

Sincerely
Dhiman

[AliciaB]

Thank you so much! I think it took about an hour to write, maybe a little more. And I have no idea how I wrote it - it just kind of happened. :) Thanks for the review!

[SZHZIA]

But I’ll be going back soon.



"Got my head in the clouds

And the clouds in my brain,

‘Cause this is the realm

Where creativity reigns."

Very well done, AliciaB, loving it....

Best
Szhzia

[AliciaB]

Thanks! I appreciate it.

[Vatsal Rohilla (account..]

Hmm, a new concept there- taking the tour of one's mind. You come across different sections and all what has been stored in those sections. Nicely penned. Keep writing.

[AliciaB]

Thank you very much!

[Emily]

Love it!!
Made me laugh!
Keep it up!!

[AliciaB]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it.

[Érenn]

*laughing here* Oh don't worry I think I can relate to this even more than you can imagine(and yes you can imagine quite a lot ;) ) That said Alicia way to add me in the poem I loved it ^^ (okay I am done with taking the spotlight that I was an inspiration to this poem; which clearly I am not) And no that said well done from breaking out of the conventional form and producing something like this. Very frank, very imaginative, humor filled to the bone(should I say gray matter here?)

Also I love the way there is no proper structure maintained throughout the write, that said, there is a disturbance or rather rather disruption in flow from time to time, or maybe it was just the way I read it.
Also good vocabulary again, you invoked quite a lot of imagery and not to mention your puns. Also because this was crazy long, I loved what you did in the last verses where you mention the reader to go back to the third stanza and laugh it out.

The poem about how your mind works is done wonderfully, that said I think even though you spent an hour here, you should go about refining this one, maybe remove a word or two or replace, read it aloud yourself to see where the flow has gone wrong.

I like the tidbits regarding the cliche's and even this being a poem or not (You remind me of me here believe me) [wow i used me 3 times in one sentence ^^'] Well sorry diverting from the point here; I loved the journey and I loved all the descriptions you had the feelings you shared, the bluntness and honesty that's present in your writes It's really great and I loved it.
keep going for this, I liked this word-play, might want to see a better one and maybe refine this one as well. Superb Work !! ^^

[AliciaB]

Thank you! Go ahead and take some of the credit - your comment was definitely a source of inspiration for this poem, as well as my own innate, punny hilariousness (dripping self-deprecating sarcasm here for the sake of humor... just go with it.) I love all the puns you yourself use in your review, as well as calling yourself out on using "me" three times in the same sentence (and by the way, check out all the forms of "you" I just used - I'm just as bad.) You're well on the way to writing your own "word play" poem! :) I know the flow's not so great in places - happens when things crash into each other in there - but I think I'm going to keep it as it is. This is just a random, disordered, brain-vomit-style poem (with "poem" being admittedly generous), so I'd like to keep it as weird as it is. :) But thanks for the input - maybe I'll try to do something like this with a bit more elegant structure in the future. As always, many thanks for the wonderful review.

[Érenn]

Yeah had a funny feeling you would say that ^^ But then again I understand ^^ And You're welcome I enjoyed reading it and don't worry your comment is again filled with humor I like ^^

[Angel of the devil]

*laughs* I love this, this is amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AliciaB]

Thanks so much!

[Angel of the devil]

welcome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Unknown Poet]

*Laughs* very imaginary and hypnotical writing....... Yes you wrote facts about the people in our brains .... ;)

[AliciaB]

Thank you! :)

[Unknown Poet]

You're welcome