12/2/2021 Poetry by Erica Abbott Øyvind Holmstad CC Poem Beginning with a Retweet after Maggie Smith I dream of never being called resilient again in my life. I am not a rubber band, made to snap back with elastic bravery- watch how she rebounds so effortlessly! I’m sick of battered ships being viewed as nothing more than a floating metaphor for survival. Picasso’d portrait of an enthusiastic party- goer slapped across my eulogy-laced lips. I don’t wish for my trauma to ever be seen as an emotional gymnasium, only there in the name of making me stronger. Never will I ask to be another Atlas, holding this weightless burden on my shoulders. Won’t frame different perspectives of it on my fridge for people to view as art. Your find meaning means nothing to me if I have to crumble to obtain it. Tired of being told when to spring back to life and how not to make it look like spiraling. As if the clock monitors my face for any gear shifted out of place for too long. Never dreamed of being called a piggy bank of grief, collecting heartache until I’m shattered and spent. Look how well she responds when the hammer meets her skin! I never asked for these personal teaching tools- had enough of these lessons in becoming china and learning how to rebuild after each strike of the bull’s horns. I’m throwing away the red cloth and searching for a white one. Please, I’m fine with being fragile instead. Knowing I could break apart at any moment. In the right hands. ![]() Erica Abbott (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based poet and writer whose work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Kissing Dynamite, Midway Journal, Serotonin, Anti-Heroin Chic, and other journals. She is the author of Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship (Toho, 2020) and volunteers for Button Poetry, Kissing Dynamite, and Mad Poets Society. Follow her on Instagram @poetry_erica and on Twitter @erica_abbott. Comments are closed.
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