{"id":1728,"date":"2009-07-10T00:34:59","date_gmt":"2009-07-10T06:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1728"},"modified":"2009-12-08T08:15:56","modified_gmt":"2009-12-08T14:15:56","slug":"poetry-friday-no-unusual-malice-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1728","title":{"rendered":"Poetry Friday: “no unusual malice anymore”"},"content":{"rendered":"

photo from Juiced Pixels. click for link.<\/a>Welcome, Poetry Friday peeps. I’ve got a question for you: how good are you at holding grudges? I’m fabulous at it. If it were an Olympic event, I’d be a gold medalist 3 or 4 times over. At least, I used to be that way. I’ve mellowed a lot in my older-age, but in my youth my relationships with friends and boyfriends could be kindly described as “mercurial,” and less kindly as “volatile.” Lately I’ve been fortunate in being able to get back in touch with some of my old friends\/enemies\/friends again, and dumping all that old baggage for good.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But then… sometimes a relationship really can’t be fixed. Sometimes certain people are just evil, or needy, or batshit-crazy. Sometimes those people can’t be reasoned with. Sometimes staying in a friendship or a family or a marriage with someone like that can mess you up but good. Sometimes… well, in the words of Hub Moore and the Great Outdoors<\/strong><\/a>, “Sometimes you work it out, but sometimes you gotta walk away.”<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

This poem does a great job of expressing how that feels, when you’ve finally let go of someone to the point that you don’t even hate them anymore. You know… much. Hardly at all.<\/p>\n

Here’s “For the Ex-Wife on the Occasion of Her Birthday”<\/strong><\/a> by Thomas P. Lynch<\/strong><\/a> (yes, the same guy that Jules mentioned in her PF<\/strong><\/a> post last week. What can I say? She piqued my interest.):<\/p>\n

Let me say outright that I bear you no
\nunusual malice anymore. Nor
\ndo I wish for you tumors or loose stools,
\nblood in your urine, oozings from any orifice.
\nThe list is endless of those ills I do not pray befall you:
\nnight sweats, occasional itching, PMS,
\nfits, starts, ticks, boils, bad vibes, vaginal odors,
\nemotional upheavals or hormonal disorders;
\ngreen discharges, lumps, growths, nor tell-tale signs of gray;
\ndry heaves, hiccups, heartbreaks, fallen ovaries
\nnor cramps\u2014before, during, or after. I pray you only
\nlaughter in the face of your mortality
\nand freedom from the ravages of middle age…<\/p>\n

Click here<\/strong><\/a> to read the rest.<\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

This week it’s none other than Jama Ratigan playing hostess-with-the-mostess at her blog Alphabet Soup<\/strong><\/a>. It’s looking peachilicious over there. Dig in!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome, Poetry Friday peeps. I’ve got a question for you: how good are you at holding grudges? I’m fabulous at it. If it were an Olympic event, I’d be a gold medalist 3 or 4 times over. At least, I used to be that way. I’ve mellowed a lot in my older-age, but in my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}