Challenge

If you want to have hot air

Blown up your a*s

Stand over a heater

Or go to a poetry website.

 

Good god,

Such magnolia-skinned “artists”

Who can’t bear

To look in the mirror

 

And maybe see

A fool reflected

In the glass

Or on the page,

 

Who haven’t the courage

To try to search

For the key to the words

Locked in the leaf

 

Buried in it

Mocking, winking.

Come, unearth me if you dare

Cut me out; dig.

 

Midwife me screaming into the world.

Forge the sounds and pounds

Of my turns

In the ruddy dark,

 

Praying for steel

Knowing only iron may rise.

Oh, Aye, steel’s sorry sister,

But may’hap still sharp.

 

Most times blunted

Good only for scrap �"

A wordsmith’s garbage heap.

Unfinished, unfound, unworthy.

Occasionally, though rare,

Polished and refined,

The contour comes clear.

A rapier honed by fire

Polished with the mind’s blood,

Shoots with eye and heart

 Piercing truth.

So, strike me.

Call me the maggot

I am.

 

Do not pet me

With pretties

Or cosset me with favors,

Unless you be true.

 

A hunter does not falter

If she sees the prey slip

Be the hawk’s eye

And do not lie.

 

 

Reviews

[Shimmerbliss/CAF]

Wow! Those first lines are wonderful!
"If you want to have hot air
Blown up your a*s
Stand over a heater
Or go to a poetry website."
I can't imagine how anyone could not see the depth and honesty in your writing! We have to be so vulnerable to show our souls on the written page, or screen, and although I think any serious writer wants constructive criticism to refine a work, and wants to know the truth of how it translates to others, it does seem that sometimes others can say things with God knows what motives. Personally, I can sit for hours debating whether to use "the" or not! and whatever I chose to do, somewhere down the line I will question the entire thing! I suppose if no one criticizes you, you aren't doing anything as the saying goes. Write on! I will read more of your work.