Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Entry #159

Missing Inaction
by Roma Joshi


Missing in action is not me, has never been.
I fly. You see me.
You tell your grandson or whoever,
You’d want to be reborn as a Me.
My only question to you, you lowlife is “Why?”
How convenient. How corny.
Oh, a bird!
How simple. How easy.
Yeah, you think?
I am not exactly a cynic. Not even half a cynic as you.
But, something’s amiss for sure.
I miss inaction.

Not that I have ever experienced it!
Hovering, fluttering for as long as I can recall.
In vacuum
Call it fresh air, if that pleases you.
Imprisoned
Behind boring blue bars of dull night sky.
Not freedom for sure.
Freedom is overrated anyways.
In darkness,
On the “run” all the time.
From nothing, from everything, from predators
And others like me.
I’m afraid of the dark.
What’s more, I’m scared of heights.
Have a bad case of motion sickness too.
What? It’s not impossible for a bird to be?
How would you know?

I want to sit in a rocking chair. Sip wine.
Stare at the ceiling.
Cry. Destroy.
Live sans these stinging wings.
Shoot an insignificant bird in the forest
with my camera, of course.

But for now,
This nighttime, this lifetime,
You can shoot me.
For I want to be reborn as a You.
Because,
I’m missing inaction.

Shoot me.
Not with you camera, of course.

17 comments:

Lena said...

Should it be with "your" camera in the last line?

I love the flow of this piece and the rhythm, like the concept of being reborn too.

Laurel said...

Suicidal existentialism on the part of the bird or projected from the viewer?

Fresh, interesting take and clever wordplay with the shooting.

Bernita said...

An interesting compliation of paradoxes.
Really liked the litany of complaint: afraid of the dar/motion sickness, etc.

laughingwolf said...

heavy...

PJD said...

A bird who is incompetent at being a bird, clever and different approach.

I have found that if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence, it's probably from the extremely toxic additives.

catvibe said...

Pete is funny. :-)

I enjoyed the form of this piece. It looks like a poem, but it read like prose. I like the short bursts of feeling words.

Craig said...

Satisfying twist. Nice angle on an overplayed theme.

Deb Smythe said...

I like the bird's cynical voice.

Kartik said...

I like this piece! A very different pov

Anonymous said...

Imprisoned
Behind boring blue bars of dull night sky.


hmmm...like kartik said, different perspective.

freedom and everything is overrated indeed :)

JaneyV said...

We all see flying as a symbol of freedom but i get the impression it's a bit knackering.


I really liked this take. I hope he's reborn as a sloth so he can catch a nap.

Dawn said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tanmay said...

you shall win miss joshi!
tanmay dhall

Preeti said...

there is something about this poem. i am maybe 'missing' it...but yes...it flows well, it reads even better..
some lines are refusing to go away from my head...and the sub-thoughts hidden in those lines are lingering on...
nice take on the prompt...a unique perspective.
i love the way you've interspersed it with queries and im wondering where are the answers...

Anonymous said...

Roma - PJD's just trying to be funny. Don't mind him.


my caveat

Something I Would Keep

The structure. I really like how the verse structure conveys meaning as effectively as the words do.

Something I Might Tweak


The question "How would you know" is, I think, superfluous.

Chris Eldin said...

Clever and interesting take!

Terri said...

Unique and clever. I like this other point of view.
It's easy to read, too - I didn't have to stop to reread or decipher anything along the way.
Nice.