DON'T MAKE ME START EDITING

09 15 14

Waste no time
waiting for it to be hung

That monolithic
chestnut frame
housing the officiation
of the consummation
of a bachelor's degree
that hibernated
understated
in a trunk for eleven
years until the irony
of my position
was embraced just
tight enough
to elevate it to the floor
glorifying one corner
of the attic of
a big house
pimped up with enough
paint and furniture
to pass shruggingly
for an apartment

A more concrete
candidate for the wall's
interruption
is a letter from
the government
grudgingly officiating
the eradicating
of my student loan
in laconic honour
of my disability

The world needs
a bipolar-riding
former editor-in-chief
of campus arts
publications about
as much as
I require higher fees
for the filing of the
income tax returns that
bottom out
in the automatic
non-need for a number

I'm a special one
I get a word

nil

Author's Note

Reviews

[Ashira Macy]

This was probably the most straight forward piece I have seen by you. It was emotional, but it also had some comic relief in there. Kind of like Shakespeare's trick where right after a really heavy scene he would put a comical character in to perk people up again. Personally I think your accomplishments are pretty great. Former editor-in-chief looks great on a resume. I am still in college trying to figure out what the hell to do with myself at 24 years (I was leaning towards nursing, but anatomy has me reconsidering), so be proud that you have you degree.

[kublakhan27]

Haha It is very straightforward indeed, probably one of the most straightforward things I've written, and I did do my best to complicate it but to no avail ;P But for the thoughts I was trying to get across, this is the only way it could really be written...there was a conscious attempt to make it dry-humoured, cuz it would have been unbearably self-indulgent otherwise...maybe I was channeling the Bard's style a bit haha I am proud of the degree though, it's really the only thing I deliberately set out to achieve in my life and actually did achieve, but things have not been great in the years since...you never know where the future is going to lead you, and I have no doubt that it will work out just fine for you...so glad you enjoyed this one my friend :)

[Ashira Macy]

It is definitely an accomplishment. I don't know how it is in your neck of the woods, but the economy here is kind of in the pits right now. There are people with amazing degrees working in retail. We can only hope the only way to go is up.

[redzone]

ah those small pieces of paper that supposedly are the gateways to heaven... BULL CRAPPY!!!! it is ronic, two of my sons got GED HS diplomas, never went to college and both make more money than my youngest son who did go to college and became a teacher. and I still need two dollars when I show my bachelors when I want a cup of coffee...

loved your poem Steve, full of spit and vingar, yet artfully done... have missed reading you... happy for the read requests...

redzone

[Eve Ola]

here u comeup with brilliant penning where words descibe best the unfairness of systems. Keep sharing you are good

[kublakhan27]

Thanks so much Eve :)

[Delmar Cooper]

This one I understood. I'm getting better either at reading or picking what to read. But whichever, thank you for the poem.

[kublakhan27]

You're welcome.

[Pryde Foltz]

Hey … you are not alone in the gotta a bachelors degree will dance for my dinner set. A gal's gotta work it but even the hustle doesn't seem to get one the floor these days. But wait it ain't over until they play Zeppelin. Help I can't stop speaking in metaphor. I hope that at least got a giggle.

[kublakhan27]

Haha Mission accomplished my friend...thank you Pryde :)

[willweb]

I'm sorry Kublakhan27, I don't know whether to laugh or cry at this whirling view of your achievments. At first I laughed and then I became concerned and I laughed again. Not because it was funny, but because the way you presented it in a matter of fact kind of way was funny. I really enjoyed this today.

[kublakhan27]

I'm glad I was able to make you laugh...I did try to present it in a comic-relief kind of way cuz I think it would have have been unbearably self-indulgent if I tried to write it in my traditional style...so glad you enjoyed it my friend.

[realmwriter]

I have had the same struggles and am going to be returning to them come January. I love the pace of this piece, the rhythm and rhyme go together and paint a flawless picture of the frenetic life of applying for loans, hoping you get them, realizing that you might be in default on some of them. What a great write.

[kublakhan27]

I'm glad you could relate my friend, I wasn't sure if anyone would given how personal this one is...the irony is that it's nothing like my traditional poetic style, and for that reason I have a hard time liking it myself, but I feel a bit better about it now...so glad you enjoyed it.

[realmwriter]

Happy I could help. And though it may not be like your traditional style, you're good at it I think. Most welcome my friend.

[R Smith]

A sad reminder of school for me although I did'ent finish and ended up working in an area no schooling could ever have prepared me for but here I am the fine upstanding man you see today.....no don't look its not true! Another great work from you, sorry to hear about the trials and tribulations though :)

[kublakhan27]

Haha Yeah school was not a great time for me for a multitude of reasons...I'd LOVE to go back as the person I am now though, cuz I'm a lot different now, and there are a lot of things that would have been handled much differently...I'm actually not crazy about this piece just cuz it's so different from my traditional style that it doesn't sound like me, even though a poem could not get more me than this, but this is the only way I could have written this one...thank you Richard :)

[R Smith]

your very welcome and yeah lets go back and rewrite history huh ?

[kublakhan27]

Ha Trust me, I'd love to :P

[AprilRN1210]

oh Steve... this one hits you straight in the heart then takes over your head... I could go on and on about this piece but will leave it short... I know could easily be a professional student if wasn't so dang expensive... I love learning... I know I am sad... but I am a nerd, what can I say... still not sure what those "degrees" really do, but maybe get your foot in the door, or get resume read... expensive piece of paper.. ((hugs))) this one was different from you... REAL, HONEST, and HEARTFELT...

[kublakhan27]

Yes, this one was pretty direct, and from a poetic standpoint, I don't think it's that good, but it's only way I could really get these thoughts across...I've been saying this in the other reviews, but my main motivation for getting the degree was jut to accomplish something, and I'm still happy that I've done it cuz it's really the only thing I can claim as an accomplishment, as far as doing something that a lot of other people haven't done...the problem is that I'll never know if it would have evolved into anything more from a profession standpoint cuz my personal issues took over after that and prevented me from doing much else, other than writing of course...my condition has given me plenty of time to write and plenty of things to write on, but that will never change the fact that I'm essentially a welfare lifer...I'm never going to live off of writing, and that's what sucks...but life goes on, and I'll go on :) ((hugs))

[Rita L. Sev]

I have a degree in Psychology and Religious Studies - and I became a teacher. I have a friend who has many skills - but no degree - and has been out of work for over a year. We do what seems right at the time, then go, whether by choice or necessity, in a direction never fathomed... and while life unfurls, we pay - in so many ways. The world needs more Poets like you, Steve - regardless of degrees or status...

[kublakhan27]

Thanks so much Rita, your support and your kind words mean so much, as they always do :)