Stalls Right in the Middle: A Prose Poem

Saturday Poetry Prompt: Dear Chaos…

Stripping in your internal room with recipes for more photos to fuck up with fingerprints— in between wires and channels and screens that don’t load pages fast enough, you know sometimes stalls right in the middle — like when you hold a fork full of food an inch from your mouth for five minutes —

or more —

you don’t know these deaths like I do — what you know doesn’t make any sense but you entered Eris here and got a stone claw lodged at the high point of your cheek — laughing about it like mad — gone dark as a grey cloud above your eyebrows —

or you dipped a couple fingers into the bucket one more time for the shrimp swimming around, still cut in half —

and half sunk to the bottom — swirls round little plastic ridges like it’s being sucked in by a drain — the bucket doesn’t have one — and the saddest songs are happening — right alongside the brightest ones — preservation happens and no one actually hears any of it —

Dear, Chaos — I’m tired of your vampirism —

I don’t have any more blood than you do, and probably less sense — though I’m plenty sensitive — and that map, the one you keep leaving in tatters like a shredded tattoo, that one that directs the madness a little more, well — you went and bled all over it and left the door wide open as you walked out.

J.D. Harms 2021

Prompt:

Ah, I feel like more darker explorations. I assure this has nothing to do with the fact that I get, at most, an hour or two of sunlight before I’m at work. Not that I’m complaining (about other things, yes…). Today’s prompt is going to be quite loose: include the phrase “dear Chaos.” You could make it a term of endearment: Oh! my dear, dear Chaos. You could use it as the beginning of a letter. Dream on, my friends, and tag me in it!!

It’s winter in some places, but Scrittura keeps cranking up the heat! Come read somewhere warm!

Melissa Coffey Zay Pareltheon Jessica Lee McMillan Viraji Ogodapola Eli Snow Joseph Lieungh Joe Luca Mimi Bordeaux Alicia Lee Colasurdo Sally A Mortemore Samantha Lazar Alan Asnen Caitlin Rebecca Gary Chapin Barry Dawson Jr. IV Suzanne V. Tanner Betsy Denson Michael Hall Jeff Langley Paroma Sen Danielle Loewen Vic Spandrio Terry Barr allie wisniewski Dennett Jesse M. Gonzalez Michelle Berry Lane Amy L. Bernstein Amy Jasek Sydney Duke Richey Sydney J. Shipp Lennie Varvarides Lori Lamothe Laurie Perez Eleanore Christine Barry Dawson Jr. IV Cassandra Armstrong Ann Marie Steele Kristie Darling Rowen Veratome Annine Massaro Andrea Juillerat-Olvera Marilyn J Wolf Pablo Pereyra Roy Reichle Era Garg Connie Song Wry Welwood Caroline Mellor Brigitte Bebey Enne Baker Renee Podunovich Georgiana Petec Chris Mooney-Singh