October 3, 2010

I thought about cheating on the writing today and filching a rough draft of something I had put in my journal this summer. That way I could still fulfill my promise of putting out a poem per day but I wouldn't have to think too hard and I would have time to do other things this morning.

But I discovered, in the process of searching through my journal, while I had the rough draft of a poem, I could not put it down in that form. It's the Virgo in me :) So, I took inspiration from earlier this summer, but kept my pledge and wrote something new.

Frenemy*

In my dream I am scrubbing a bathroom

that stubbornly holds its dirt.

No matter how hard I work

it will not come clean.

I am talking to a friend

(who doubles as an enemy)

and I am trying to remember

a favorite poet’s name.

With the remembrance of the poet

comes the realization of the frenemy –

the counterspy, who betrayed me

smiled at me while turning on me –

and I am scrubbing her sink.

As I work, the sink grows wider and deeper

the stain of her duplicity becomes darker

ingrained dark splotches on white enamel.

I can feel the texture of her betrayal

as I try to remove it.

It’s a dream that does not end

except with an awakening.

I haven’t thought about her in years,

unless you count every day

when I drive by her house,

the one with the stain,

visible only to me.

* A person who is both your friend and enemy, often blurring the lines between the two.