No One's Puppet (Cutting The Strings)

Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make believe. - Thoreau

no stranger to a cuss

her favorite saying, "what's all the fuss?"

thought life was nothing more than a three-ring circus

with an exquisite lustre and unpolished shine

overindulged with boone's farm watermelon wine

long, cascading hair tied assuredly back

fond of reese's peanut butter cups for both a mid-afternoon and late night snack

took long baths with scented candles and lavender soap

white robe and towel 'wrapped 'round her head making her look like the pope

drove way too fast

despite solid lines painted on roads, still wanted to pass

thinking the good times would forever last

'til one day she ran out of gas

then ran over some glass getting a flat, with no tire jack

always walked down sidewalks refusing to step on a crack

said she was no one's puppet

choosing cremation over the undertaker's phony, makeup bucket

her unwritten epitaph read, "f*ck it"

Author's Note

"Do not speak for other men; speak for yourself. They show you as in a vision the kingdoms of the world, and of all the worlds, but you prefer to look in upon a puppet-show." - Thoreau

Reviews

[emmajoygreen]

Your chosen picture of lounging woman, the music gone with the wind.. you set the scene and the story goes onl and on. Over exuberant, noise is what it is, so is life.

' Long, cascading hair tied assuredly back
fond of reese's peanut butter cups for both a mid-afternoon and late night snack
took long baths with scented candles and lavender soap
white robe and towel 'wrapped 'round her head making her look like the pope' Witty.. innocent, huh??

In a breath, tide turns '
'drove way too fast
despite solid lines painted on roads, still wanted to pass
thinking the good times would forever last
'til one day she ran out of gas '

Pause, gulp, wait, read on. Tragedy bound to happen, a feeling that.. something would happen, finely written, meter more than fine.. and that was the end yet in her way and yours.

' she was no one's puppet
choosing cremation over the undertaker's phony, makeup bucket
her unwritten epitaph read, "f*ck it"

The end, goes with out saying.. meant to happen.

[Pete]

free spirits do have a tendency to self destruct. we all need an anchor in our lives don't we - something to keep us grounded so that we don't go off the rails? that which is forced upon us can make us feel like a puppet causing us rebel in order to think that we've cut the strings often to our own detriment.

[Pete]

not taking up my time. have no knowledge of what you speak of.

[emmajoygreen]

Laughed quietly then loudly at the tone of your poem's ending. Better live than merely exist plus never cede to someone with rope or twine too readily available! Puppetry is a killer.

[Pete]

sometimes life can feel as though we're actors in someone else's twisted play.

[Papaya]

This reads like a free spirit who lives by her own rules, or maybe no rules.
I think we live longer when we live by some set of rules but I imagine the other way to be much more fun. What's that saying? Better to burnout than fade away?

[Pete]

good point you make. it does take discipline to live in such a way else we are prone to self-destruct. 'better to burn out than fade away' - neil young and a few others have sung that line!

[Thomas W Case]

Superb work. Great flow and rhyme.

[Pete]

thanks twc. summer is coming.

[Ken Simm.]

It is the rhythm I think I love most in this multi layered and intelligent epitaph for origial thinking. And I am aware of the irony in that statement.

[Pete]

thank you ken. as an artist you look at things differently and from a different perspective than most.