The liars lie and the stealers
steal and the lovers love and
the takers take. The fighters
fight and the restless do not
rest. And also true, the liars
love and the fighters steal
and the restless take
and the lovers fight and all of us,
all of us want to be right.
May I be wrong. May I come
to you without my books,
without my rules, without
my shoulds. Let me always
arrive at your door with empty hands.
Let me meet you with my pockets
full of blank, not convinced
of anything except
the possibility of everything.
Let me be wrong. Let me not label anyone
a liar. Let me bottom out.
What is it in us that wants to be right?
I have seen it turn a whole month, a whole life
to ice. I have felt the chains of certainty,
I have worn the shackles of listen-to-me.
Let me be wrong. Let there be chinks
in my belief. Let there be splinters
in my conviction. Look how alone it is
in this hour when I am so perfectly right.
May my rules go begging. May my imperatives
learn to crawl. May my righteousness hold
an empty bowl. May my musts all redden to rust.
And may I be wrong as the wrongers are wrong.
And may I unknow. And unlearn.
And unselve. And love as the lovers love.
*with a first line taken from David J. Rothman, “And Remember to Be Kind to Yourself”
Nice one, I do find this celebration of wrongness exactly right. That line, May my musts redden to rust. Lovely, and on down to the end, so rightly wrong. May this not be inspired by my comments yesterday, and if so, well, then you have distilled the finest from the rot.
Ohhh … Don’t fret. This one came out of a meditation of sorts. Thanks for all your feedback. It’s all valuable to me!
just wanted you to know that i translated your poem to hebrew. we need it also here in the holy holy land. thank you so much for your words
If you send it to me, I will add it, with your name of course, here on my website with the poem. That would be lovely! Can you paste it into a message? Send it to rosemerry@wordwoman.com