Remember, writing can be tricky....in poetry and fiction, that is. The "I" isn't the author...although people always assume so...the "I" is a voice ;) Unless it's an autobiography, of course. People assumed that was the case with my first book...that the narrator was me. Although there were many elements of my history in it (we write what we know or study), it was still a character, and she acted and reacted as her character, not as me...my writing is better when I can remain in the backseat, I feel....which is often why I do male characters, to take a step back. Makes it richer.
High Rise
In pictures, showing teeth, one couple
Drives west. Another,
The mountains or the zoo.
Look there --
In the quiet
Morning, some man touches some woman’s neck,
And she shudders,
Taking it,
Feeling it,
Liking it.
It works its way
Down.
You can see the vein.
I'm a small, bare shadow in the back-
Ground.
I don't wanna be naked
Anymore, but I'm a fucking butterfly.
Hand me the smoothest
Criminal,
And I’ll show you my book, my tongue,
My wing beat, my latest
Hummingbird.
I admit there's a hole
In my net. Some say I may lose it and
Talk trash.
Never.
But the heightened fear of garbage
Lives in their eyes.
Others want me
Simply for the record. I could throw it all
Out.
I could find a suit and a high rise. Dear
Family, I’m not
Sick.
You are.
Grief is a thick, young thief,
A chest mugger. It comes with living,
A bitch of a trip.
I'm guessing you hear me.
Now give me a cookie
And an instrument.
C.A. MacConnell
