On Edge

14 July 2021 Wednesday Prose Poem: the Other perspective

now there are more killers than ever and I write poems for them — Bukowski

Yes, you can get fixed — and unfixed and affixed and they will attach a bumper to your belly because you’re just not safe

out there — you’ve been sitting on the edge for too fucking long — it stopped looking like an edge a long, long time ago — like you could just step off and there would be

a world to catch your foot — maybe flip you — hard, onto your back while you reflexively reach for genital protection — that’s just lucky and you know it —

but you’re actually on edge — you know you’re strung out and coming down — it’s such a long way down — and the crows have decorated your tombstone in advance

have determined what flecks are stone and shit — and somehow, heaving up on the belt — two hands or one — just isn’t quite the motion to begin to re-rise to your top —

and you know, at some point — you gotta come down.

J.D. Harms 2021

Prompt:

What I’d like to see, for today’s prompt, is to write a prose poem in the second person. Personally, I always find this challenging; not because it’s hard to write “you” instead of “I”, but I worry that I have only (thinly) disguised myself as an Other. You can write on whatever subject you feel like, but there’s not supposed to be any (stated) “I” in the piece. Tag me in it, and enjoy rocking from the Other’s perspective!

Lennie Varvarides Melissa Coffey Jeff Langley Daniel Barry Alex Guenther MDSHall Melissa Rodriguez Lori-Beth Noel Mimi Bordeaux Samantha Lazar Dennett Ann Marie Steele Vic Spandrio Andrea Juillerat-Olvera Ana-Maria Schweitzer Amanda Dalmas Jessica Lee McMillan Eli Snow Zay Pareltheon Viraji Ogodapola Betsy Denson Caitlin Rebecca Paroma Sen Barry Dawson IV Gary Chapin Ben Human Frederick Andrew Ulf Wolf Jesse M. Gonzalez Jaylee Reign j.calabrese Eva Rotolo Gurpreet Dhariwal Angelina Der Arakelian Annine Massaro Aparna Das Sadhukhan Connie Song Vixen Lea Harley Bell Josie Elbiry jenine bsharah baines Mary Jones janny’s heart Taylor Haught Justin Haag Joe Luca Joseph Lieungh Christina M. Ward Evan Wildstein Julia Saha Julia Marsiglio Mike Scarpiello Eddie Becker Dana Sanford Georgia Lewitt Renee Podunovich Josh Lonsdale Jonah Lightwhale Jonah Angeles Janaka Stagnaro Mohan Boone Steven Clifford Saugat Menon Saurabh C Tejas Rena H. Rambling Rose Kira Dawn Iva Hotko Suzanne V. Tanner Amy L. Bernstein Amy Jasek Lindsay Soberano-Wilson Wry Welwood Lori Lamothe Laurie Perez Chris Mooney-Singh Xandra Winters Lola Sense Wilfreda Edward Aaron Quist Charlene Marron Rhonda Marrone Sydney Duke Richey Sydney J. Shipp Joanna Vang Niki Madore Kristie Darling Kevin E. Pittack Jr. Carolyn Riker Adrea Kore Sylvia Dziuba I am not a Robot