If you can dodge a fish…

Why hello there! Aren’t you just cutting a delectably fine figure in that outfit!

I thought of a vastly superior way of referring to my career, no longer am I a writer but rather a word monger. Flinging them around like freshly filleted salmon, if you can mong a fish you can dodge a ball! Wait, that’s wrong, if you can mong a fish you can mong a word!

Today’s poem doesn’t really have a context. I basically wrote it completely independent of any other thoughts. The words sort of piled up like an overloaded funnel before correcting and spouting forth unhindered and smoothly. I barely even needed to edit or make the usual alterations. Amusingly, that said, I don’t really love it. I can’t put my finger on precisely what it is but it made the cut in the end regardless. It’s like clothes that fit perfectly but just don’t look very good.


“Tumbling”, June 23, 2018

Once we danced light on the head of a pin

Enchanted leaps and fleet bewildered spin

Turned clumsy over time, all do with age

The bargain we strike, to grow ever sage

Still the nimble angels continued on

Increasingly looking haggard and drawn

Grace wears quite thin in us all at the last

And in those moments futures become past.


I guess I had simply heard the expression (angels on a head of a pin) recently and the piece in its entirety must have sprouted from that and my own healthy sense of fatalism.

So I was trying to say that they/we/I die at the end. You no longer have a future so it is passed (past?). Does that make sense or come through clearly enough? It’s a not so profound thought masquerading as ocean-deep. Just in an absurdly obtuse fashion, my specialty after all.

I sure do appreciate y’all stopping by, I hope a pie of grandmother crafted quality finds its way into your life in somehow!

Mong!

-Alex Blaikie



14 responses to “If you can dodge a fish…”

  1. I really like this poem, something about the inevitably of change/aging resonates with me. Or maybe I’m just old…

    Liked by 1 person

    1. You’re only as old as your cat makes you feel:)

      Like

  2. “The bargain we strike, to grow ever sage”….I like to think I’m getting a little sage, but I don’t remember striking that bargain. Wait….I get it. The bargain is that we are still around…Great poem.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. justdrivewillyou Avatar
    justdrivewillyou

    Nice work, pin head.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. “Such sights to show you”

      Liked by 1 person

  4. You’re a poem-monger, so I took a look.
    Say, you’re good! How ’bout a book?!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. It’s written! Just haven’t been bothered to send out to publishers yet. Any advice anyone? Seems like a lot of the ones I’ve looked at online say no poetry submissions…

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Have you Googled keywords publisher and poetry?!

        Like

      2. Yes, what I really need to do is nose to the grindstone. Writing is more than writing, at least at the outset. 🙂 Come on Blaikie! Get it together!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Yes yes! Onward!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. Use the writers market and also there are submission apps that all the publishers use now. I haven’t looked at them in three months but a single search should immediately gain you results. Mileage may vary.

        Liked by 1 person

      5. Fantastic advice. You are very kind to pass that along:)

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Well worded. The usage of tropes is so enchanting. Anand Bose from Kerala

    Liked by 2 people

Leave a reply to dreadpoetssobriety Cancel reply