Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith

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Poem: "On the Unmaking of Enemies"

This poem comes from the November 3 fishbowl. It was the headlong winner of the followup poll, with twice as many votes as the next-most-popular poem! It was inspired by a prompt from dulcinbradbury.


On the Unmaking of Enemies


To keep an enemy is
To keep a loaded weapon beneath your bed.
You will never sleep soundly on it.

Do not keep them
And count them over like beads.
Cast them away.
Unmake them.
Remember there are ways and ways
To accomplish this.

Oh, you could kill them all
And burn their cities to ash.
You could cut them to pieces
And dance upon their bones.
But their cousins and their cousins’ cousins
Would hate you for all time,
And how could you slay them down to the very last?

There are ways and ways.

As Bernhard Shaw said,
“Forgive your enemies. It will drive them crazy.”
As Abraham Lincoln said,
"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

Believe this, if nothing else:
They know how to parry a sword.
They have no idea how to parry love.
Tags: cyberfunded creativity, fishbowl, poem, poetry
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  • 12 comments
Ooooh, I like this. I will like it better when I am calmer.
I'm glad this poem was able to come through to us right away. Very well done.
I'm glad that the most timely ones have seen the light of day, too. *bow, flourish* But you donors and audience members are the ones responsible for making them available! Pat yourselves on the back. I just write the stuff.
YES. "Turn unto him the other cheek."
I love this one.
*chuckle* Such a different view and philosophy in life!

I can't imagine sleeping safer and sounder than with a loaded gun easily at hand! But then, I'm also a trained marksman and a far better aim than most and trust my ability to use it, too.
Oh ... don't imagine that I agree with everything I write. I'm far better a warrior than a peacemonger. Happily I don't feel the need to sleep with a conventional weapon in reach, but I could if circumstances called for it. There are flingables in reach if necessary.
ROFL
My first pregnancy was a fiasco from the beginning to the long arduous and faulty end. The only thing that ever did go right was the astonishingly beautiful, sweet, gifted young woman who resulted from that long travail.
So there I was in labor awaiting the doctors return to check things. I had already had several very intimidating and abusive incidents with a large aggressive nurse. This nurse returned again to my room, told me in a no nonsense tone that my doctor was busy so she was just going to check my state of dilation. I told her in firm tones that I would wait and she was not to touch me. To my astonishment, this woman laid hands on my legs, attempted to forcibly part them while saying, "Come on, Girlie", followed by something astounding and abusive.
I may not have had anything resembling a real weapon but OMG, I began to kick, SCREAM, and threw every item in my overnight bag at her before my husband succeeded in *shoving* her out of my hospital room.
As traumatic as it all sounds, 28 years later, I still convulse in laughter, recalling the sight of those sock rolls and other items flying across the room!
Flingables! What a great word.
Anything that can be picked up or pried loose can be made into a weapon. Anything too heavy to be budged can be used to bash someone against.
Perhaps.. but I must admit, rolled socks are not intimidating... Hehe
I've told la_connaisance many many times she needs to stop folding her socks, so her kids can have SOCK WARS!!!! Like my brother and I did ever Sat when we were kids, after I finished matching all the socks. hee!
SOCK WARS!!! YES!!! *grin*
I kept all the unmatched socks in a huge sack and every few months, I'd gather my children around in a circle for what we called "the great sock war". I'd dump the big sack in the middle and the goal was to make as many matches as you could. The pay out was you got to THROW the rolled up match at the owner of the pair.
It was entirely too fun and the kids always screamed with great glee when I would decide it was time again.

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