It’s not the wickedness that kills us
but the expectations
and the pretense
but the expectations
and the pretense
It’s not
the poison apple
or even
the apple
of The Knowledge
of Good and Evil
it’s the
hundreds of apples
over the
years
bruised
and mealy
offered
for our own good
It’s not
the single, clean stab of a blade
it’s a thousand
paper cuts
it’s not
one deep gash from the sword
but a
million little jabs of the pen
that add
up to our demise
Death by
hypocrisy
death by
conformity
death by
good intentions
Image by Brooke Shaden.
Written shockingly late for The Sunday Muse.
Shockingly late produced shockingly amazing! This hits hard and true.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Helen!
DeleteWow! This is terrific. "it’s the hundreds of apples / over the years / bruised and mealy / offered for our own good" - great. And I love the three thwacks there at the end...
ReplyDeleteHaha! Thanks Q. Nothing like a few good thwacks with your apple pie...or cake.
DeleteOh I LOVE this, Mary!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I almost didn't post until I saw you message to get writing.
DeleteThis is absolutely amazing Mary! It is a thousand paper cuts and apples over the years! Powerful truth flowing here! Love love love this!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks so much, Carrie!
DeleteAmazing!
ReplyDeleteThank you!
DeleteWonderful words, and true.
ReplyDeleteThanks Sherry.
DeleteAs the slow dripping of water reshapes stone. This is incredibly and uncomfortably true.
ReplyDeleteThank you Bev.
ReplyDeleteThis is nice, Mary. Glad t4o see you write. Right away I was hinging of the gun advocates, "It's not the gun that kills but the ... " I'll say it's the short tempered people who kill, the raciests that say one more (so and so) is down, and that ilk. Take away their guns would take away a lot of killing by cowards like me.
ReplyDeleteI have three guns, my childhood BB gun that still shoots and two other guns that I've never shot and really don't know how. Those last, one is a 22 gauge rifle that I inherited from my dad. It is at least 50 years old, a Montgomery Ward brand, that Dad used to hunt rabbits for my grandmother to clean and cook for them. The other is a Spanish pistol from a friend that I have inherited when he died. It has never been fired and the company has long been out of business. I would never disclose any of those and probably won't shoot any, perhaps the BB gun for target practice. Shooting is an Olympic sport.
..
Thanks Jim. It's been a long time. I didn't really think about the gun problem/issue in the US when I wrote this. I learned to shoot a BB gun when I was a kid, but I never shot at anything living. And I agree exactly that it is people who kill, but guns sure make it a lot easier and more efficient for them. Maybe that's why the military gives them our. ;-)
ReplyDeleteOut - gives them out! Ug! Great way to end on a typo!
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