Hello 🙂
How are you?
I want to know why (flipping) Jimpix is obsessed with making me research different Chinese cities? Do I need this information for a later scene in my life story, or something?!
I dutifully looked up ‘Shenyang’, as well as reading about the delights of ‘pleurisy’ and ‘malcontent’. The latter because I don’t trust my Latin after all these years, clearly. But one never knows…
Pillar Uranus Broom Shenyang Camping Futuristic Surfer Pleurisy Malcontent
Mal was not a pillar of the community,
And he still chucked if you mentioned
“Uranus”
He was useless with a broom, unless
He was feigning witchcraft or cavalry.
But I loved him.
We all loved him.
That crazy trip to Shenyang –
Where we all got caught camping
In that massive room he rented
On his dad’s plastic.
Those were good times!
When you felt at your lowest,
Not saying much, just plugging in
Some stupid futuristic game;
And letting you win.
Just so you could shoot at something
That wasn’t your own foot.
His tousled, surfer-boy hair;
Wet against the pillow as he coughed!
Telling me he was fine, while clutching his chest.
A simple thing like pleurisy!!
So unfair.
Our symbol of collective “malcontent” no longer here
To help us fight the void that sucks at us.
This poem actually makes me teary. I can see the girlfriend standing with her wee speech on cards at a lectern in the church (thinking that this would probably be the last place ‘Mal’ would want to have his funeral, but his parents insisted)
I see her with long, naturally ash-blonde hair, ironed very straight for the occasion, hanging past her shoulders and held back from her eyes with a simple Kirby grip. There are small red roses around the bodice of her mostly-black dress. Her pain (and guilt) is coming off her in waves.
I just want to hug her!
What did you see while reading the poem? Do you have a Mal in your group of friends?
(Did your brain just get a bit stuck on Nathan Fillion’s character in Firefly?!)
[Photo credit: Pixabay]
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March 11th, 2017 at 8:29 pm
I’m afraid I just laughed. I did so enjoy the way you weaved these desperate words into your poem – very clever.
March 11th, 2017 at 9:37 pm
Aww thanks Jane, can’t let my generator nemesis win 😜 X