Friday, May 28, 2010

MAGPIE TALES


Dark room at the back of the house.
Cedar-lined closet along one wall
houses multi-colored boxes
filled with velvet, patent, suede
shoes in every color imaginable.
High heels (not just the name),
clip-clop along the oak floor
making me feel bigger,
making me feel important,
making me feel grown up.
45's and LP's line this
cedar-lined closet too,
singing sad songs,
singing "Blue Velvet, softer than satin in the night".
Singing take me back,
take "IT" back.
My little-girl mind wonders
why?
My little-girl mind wonders
Who?
My little-girl body wears
the shoes, hoping to
shuffle the sadness away.
That room still frightens me
in my big-girl mind.



Visit "Magpie Tales" for more wonderful poems inspired by Willow's prompts.

10 comments:

  1. a wonder magpie...kids love to play in big persons shoes...being grown up scares me sometimes...smiles.

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  2. whoah .... I think I know that room too

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  3. You capture so perfectly the feeling of being a child in grown-up shoes. I especially like these lines :
    High heels (not just the name),
    clip-clop along the oak floor
    making me feel bigger,
    making me feel important,
    making me feel grown up.

    Thanks for sharing a great Magpie :)

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  4. My old girl mind loves these kinds of journeys! Wonderful!

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  5. Intriguing and nicely done. I enjoyed this.

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  6. This strangely took me back to my childhood, too. The shoes, the records. Wonderful, Teri.

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  7. Boy I enjoyed this one....And do I ever remember Blue Velvet..you captured the sound of that song in your words...
    mysterious and blue for sure
    but I have the feeling that there is more here than meets the eye

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  8. Agree with Suz. 'More than meets the eye'. Why the fear? Is it that disgarded shoes are so personal? Ghosts? See, you prompted questions for us to ponder. Nice.

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  9. Hello everyone--Thanks for all the great comments. There is always more to a poem than meets the eye, at least in my estimation. This bedroom was in my house as a child. Things that happened in our family prompted this poem, some sad, some scary, discarded: yes---ghosts? I think they reside in our heads but yes, they are there too. What a pair of shoes doesn't conjure up, right?

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