Friday, June 02, 2006

i wrote this in 05. i submitted it for c&c to my
workgroup. we never could decide if it should be
a short story or a prose poem or put into a more
classic poem form. so, i put it aside and still it just seems
to want to be just as it is. a "first thought, best thought" thing.
so, here it is.


" you can never go down the drain."
mr. rogers


i bought myself a silver i.d. bracelet
the silver as thin as a communion wafer
with mr. roger's words scratched on it.

mr. rogers, sweatered, sneakers in hand
calm voice assuring little kids that
no, they can't be sucked down a drain
along with the bubbles and
the pee they let loose with
giggles and wide grins.

silvered links around my wrist now
i thought that if i remembered that truth, now
if i couldn't be sucked down that drain
everything else would be,
could be safe and simple.

mr. rogers never ever promised that, but
i wanted to believe that
needed to believe it was so.

i wear the bracelet
look at it fifty times a day or more
hearing mr. rogers inside my head
soothing me, almost letting me
feel the bubbles tickling my nose
loved and safe and clean, once more.

mr. rogers was a great guy that understood
kids and childish fears but he never knew about
or perhaps chose not to talk about how

someday most of us would grow up and
that for most of us going down that damn drain
would be the least of our worries
that for most of us

all of our giggles and wide grins
went down the drain along with our piss
years ago.




http://pbskids.org/rogers/




7 comments:

candoor said...

I don't know why grown ups allow it to happen... I mean, I am fully prepared to go squeezing through that drain to follow my fun and giggles if they ever happen to slip down there... so far I've been quite lucky and theyve suck to me like glue... maybe that's why I scare so many grown ups away... maybe it's the piss...

Sherry Pasquarello said...

you are blessed then. never lose that quality.

QUASAR9 said...

Hey, I see candoor is here too.
The fun and the giggles shouldn't be washed away - well maybe the childish fun & giggles do fade, but life should be fun & smiles. Yet so many things in 'reality' to contradict & confound these things. Even among those with no 'reson' to be troubled. I think it is sad that people strt to believe we live in the valley of tears, and that our thoughts or wishes can no longer lift others out (or up). Au contraire it seems others would wish to take us down to (and thru) their drainpipes, but not to clean them, but to trap us there too. With you I cannot imagine this to be. I almost feel your 'lightheartedness & smiles' like some mischievious little d...
Laters...Q

Sherry Pasquarello said...

ah, but see, i am not lighthearted at all, but i do find fulfillment in helping others to smile. i can be quite childlike at times, but that is only because i am seeking the child i never really could be.
it is good to be childlike at times, to see the wonder in things for the first time, even if it is late in the seeing.
i can be many things and none. depends on if my black dog smiles and is busy elsewhere.
i decided about 9 years ago to come to terms with myself and to try to learn that i'm ok with being me.
life is hard and can be quite unkind. i have seen many good people with few things in it but one sorrow after another, so, i look for small bright moments and if i can share them with others, so much the better!
mother teresa i am not, but, i am trying to be happy with myself.

QUASAR9 said...

Sorrows are different from hell. Why one should sorrow after a departed love one: mother, child or spouse is beyond me. That is self-inflicted.

But hell as in human trafficking, or the worst excesses of slavery, mining under the poorest of conditions, and physical damage resulting from wars. These are harder to 'walk' away from.

Blessedly even in the darkest pits there would always be someone with a song, or with some great feat, to raise the spirits of the rest.

Sherry Pasquarello said...

oh, yes, we sorrow for ourselves after the death of a loved one. the loved are at rest or have moved on to a better deal, so to speak. may be selfish, but it's natural enough.
if there were nothing to ease the spirit, there would be no spirit left in this world, just drones.

QUASAR9 said...

And that is life, as we know it on earth. For some a collection of memories, for some memories still to be collected. Laters...Q