Toenail, Ingrown

Silly poem about my boyfriend and an ingrown toenail or two.

Toenail, ingrown

My boyfriend, 

a picker

a shredder

a squeezer

a ripper.

This ripping

caused him once to suffer an ingrown toenail. 

Every step, he hobbled and winced and exclaimed, 

as though his trainer was made of blades. 

At first I laughed. 

I thought he was joking. 

The ingrown toenail grew out. 

But he continued to pick. 

He hadn't learned from previous experience because 

I definitely won't let it get like that again;

Besides it wasn't that bad. 

And then, 

again, 

the prickling panic of his big toenail on the left ripped just a little too far...

And the waiting...

as the toenail burrows deep, 

with the impotence of an acorn in winter,

about to pulled from its dark earthy security by a starving squirrel, 

digging and digging and digging. 

Grace period over. 

My boyfriend, 

the picker

the shredder

the squeezer

the ripper

is helpless, 

and doomed to hobble and wince and exclaim again. 

To play out the drama of a toenail ingrown. 

Author's Note

I have only ever written about 3 poems, and this is my first in several years. My focus in this poem was on the structure which I have tried to experiment with a bit. Do you think it works? Would love to have any other comments too!

Reviews

[Blotted Ink Productions]

It hurts me to read this because I caGn feel the pain of that toenail. That tells me that it's a great write! Good job!

[leppero]

I thin the structure works fine and the repeated stanza is a nice touch. you took what must have been a very painful experience and put it onto the page in such a way that it was kinda fun to read,

fair play, nice one

[ANTO]

Guilty also (holds hands up) - well I used to pick those ingrown toenails and boy did it hurt.
I love the care and love and the way the writer sees that this futility of the boyfriends actions is part of him, part of who he is, and accepts that flaw in him. The poem is more than just about an ingrown toenail - its about an ingrown boyfriend.

I have practical advice if you want it regarding this - I learned the hard way to leave them alone though...

I hope this is the start of you writing more - as an experiment it worked just fine.
:))

[Grace Kinsey]

Thank you so much for your kind review! It's given me a buzz of motivation and I love what you have seen in the poem. :)