Land Anemones

A surrealist take on the world I inhabit from day to day...

I can't see, 'midst all these land anemones
So bright and light and airy
I'm pinned like a butterfly in a display case
Without room to fly

The landweed sways in violent drifts
The pace here is so double quick
And everything moves in fits and starts
So loud and brash and mean

I try to drift so relaxed and serene
But instead I writhe unable to rise
Face pressed into the raw earth
One dry eye filled with grit

Harsh earth crackles
Where instead should be smooth mud
Starting to feel so dried out
The substance of life has gone too thin

My mouth opens and closes
I'm breathing in the futility
Obligatory jaw contractions
That's all I have now



(Unfinished...)

Author's Note

Does anyone get where I am coming from on this one? It is a VERY specific feeling, which is a hint!

Reviews

[Tina Louise UK]

I'm pinned like a butterfly in a display case
Without room to fly...great imagery here, felt like a bird that has had it's wings clipped..

I'm trying to figure out what it means but can only come up with how it makes me feel....almost lost,out of place.. unable to do what I want, can't sleep, can't think....thought provoking piece! x

[Robert Tusitala O'Neill]

It is sort of like the "Ring the Bell, Alexander!" poem in that there is a hidden perspective in it. This one I am still working on though. Think about the majority of the imagery and you will start to feel why it is out of place...It is a deliberate trick and maybe unfair. I used to love M.C. Escher and -actually I still do...I don't know why I said "used to," but anyway- I hope one day to create a poem that has as clever a twist in it as his "Impossible Triangle."

[Tina Louise UK]

outch my brain hurts lol...you sure are making us work...I shall give it more thought x

[Robert Tusitala O'Neill]

(It really is right before your eyes...but I should at least give you the hint that it has to do with something we have talked about a bit before...feeling out of place. Think about the title too...)

[Tina Louise UK]

Scuba diving?? being under water...that has to be it lol

[Robert Tusitala O'Neill]

Yep! Exactly!! I was surprised that I had a friend read it and he didn't really get it for a long time. It is about being a sea creature and yet living on land. The confusion of not being able to float in three dimensions...

[SquinklaPsyOps]

Is about something that is out of place or halted compared to a fossil that was victim of circumstances.

I could also be about different species of flowering plants that captured a vehicle from the future and turned it into a fossil for invading their territory.

Kept trying to find words in the poem that would give me the door to a metaphor.

[Robert Tusitala O'Neill]

You are on to something and THANK YOU for reading this...No one had said a thing about it yet! It was starting to get to me. Just because something is unfinished doesn't mean it isn't worthy of comment! Thanks for yours!! I don't want to spoil your fine guessing though. I will just say you are coming close. I love your idea about the future vehicle. There was a weird movie with Molly Ringwald I remember from when I was a kid that was like that...well sort of (only less imaginative). I will just hint that it is more the out of place and less the fossil, but I hope you will check back as the poem develops. It is actually a hard one for me to write because I am trying to nail the comparison.