Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Antilamentation, by Dorianne Laux

dinahlance:

Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read
to the end just to find out who killed the cook.
Not the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication.
Not the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punchline, the door, or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don’t regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the living room couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You’ve walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don’t bother remembering
any of it. Let’s stop here, under the lit sign
on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.

you’ve traveled this far on the back of every mistake is something i desperately needed to hear this week.

(Source: netrikon)

Posted at 10:57 PM 411 notes Reblogged from gerutha Tags: poetry things i need to remember

Notes

  1. winsletsrack reblogged this from timeforbees
  2. timeforbees reblogged this from livonce
  3. itsfriesonapizza reblogged this from livonce and added:
    Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read to the end just to find out who killed the cook. Not the insipid movies...
  4. livonce reblogged this from oh-you-better-run
  5. vertiga reblogged this from third-star-til-the-morning
  6. thegoodgowest reblogged this from flourhoneyandmilk
  7. mikkipedia reblogged this from buried-denmark
  8. bytheglowofthetvset reblogged this from lucy-vanpelt
  9. ninja-pillow-timeywimey reblogged this from third-star-til-the-morning
  10. threebythree reblogged this from netrikon
  11. broken-endings reblogged this from demarches
  12. slarkin reblogged this from flakkery
  13. feelingofgaze reblogged this from flourhoneyandmilk and added:
    this is the best poem I’ve read in a while. & a manifesto I tried to live by long before I read it.
  14. harmonicaesthetics reblogged this from flakkery
  15. flakkery reblogged this from saisonlune
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