Today’s host of the March Open Write is Katrina Morrison of Tulsa, Oklahoma, who inspires us to write poems from the shadows – from places of memory or distanced wonder. You can read her full prompt here – and join us, if you’d like. Come and peruse the poems today – there will be some moving poems, I predict. I hope to see you there!
I write from a place of childhood haunting – a movie scene that has branded my heart and left me wondering about the thin veil between strangers and friends.
The Speed of Love
When I was little
There was this movie
A man and his chimp
Were best buds
The man gave the chimp
Treats to coax good behavior
Trust was built
At the speed of treats
Love at the speed of
Time together
And so it was
Until the scene
In the biohazard lab
Where the deadly spores
Diffused into the air
Where that door
Got stuck
And the double whammy -
the bomb was ticking
Tick tick tick tick tick
No one could
Break the code
or the glass
The man on one side
His best little buddy
stuck on the other
The fate of mankind
Hanging in the breeze
The camera panned
To the furrowed brow
To the moment of knowing
the heartsick feeling
in the man's heart
But he had to do
What he had to do
The man dangled the treat
at the window
Pointed to the problem
directed his best little buddy
to deactivate the bomb
The chimp pushed the button
Saving mankind
No more spores spewing
No more bomb ticking
Returned to the window
for his treat
for his good behavior
for saving mankind
But the chimp’s fate was sealed
He’d breathed the spores
Opening the door would only kill more
The camera panned to the
Man’s hand holding the treat
Against the glass
The chimp’s fingers feverishly
Trying to grasp it
Trying to grasp the treat
Trying to grasp the truth
The question mark on his brow
The tears in the man’s eyes
The grief in his heart
thud thud thud thud thud
And that was where the movie ended
But it has never ended
It still plays on
In a quiet chamber
Of my heart
Common Threads 
Very haunting.
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Wow! You captured that movie scene with amazing precision. I could see it and feel it. Reminds me of why I don’t watch horror movies. My heart is still racing.
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Yikes, what a moment. And well done. This is art.
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Thank you!
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Oh, Kim. The scene is so vivid and real I can hardly bear it. I want to rush in and save the chimp – or least to let him have his treat – I feel his consternation and honestly I sometimes wonder about the better species. More than sometimes. Now I will carry the image with me, too.
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Fran, thanks for reading and commenting – yes, that one scene in that movie may have left some permanent damage and some permanent values – the good and the bad.
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Kim,
This ekphrastic moment of turning art into art offers a double haunting, a sad commentary on what humans do to other sentient beings in the name of survival. I’ve been thinking about this often the past few days, contemplating the pecking order, the ways some both sides of the fence for utilitarian reasons. Before the poem you write, “ left me wondering about the thin veil between strangers and friends.” That captures the essence of life right now.
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Thank you for reading and commenting today, Glenda! Yes, that veil can be perplexing.
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Kim, your poem is riveting! What was the name of this film? Do you know? Sounds like so many biological terrors we need to be concerned about today.
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Barb, I would love to know the name of it. I was hoping that someone in the OW or the SOL group would recognize the scene.
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It definitely sounds familiar.
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Kim,
I’m haunted by this movie now too. You have brought us all into your childhood memory. I too hope to know what it is called and see this scene myself. I wrote a 32123 poem, inspired by you. Maybe next April on 4-21-24 we’ll write palindrome poems together again!
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Now I am haunted, too! I do not know this movie. The image of the man holding the treat against the glass is heartbreaking. I like the formatting of this poem – stair steps going backward, as you did with your memory.
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Thank you, Maureen, the hands and the eyes in that scene still play out. Thanks for reading and commenting today!
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