Still Bargaining Against the Fall
Still Bargaining Against the Fall
When I think of you suffering,
I wonder how I can hurt
one thing–step
on a bug, eat
salmon.
I am not comparing you to a bug
or salmon.
I only know that when I think of you suffering,
when I think of the possible loss of you,
I want to lessen suffering,
I want loss to go away,
I want you to stay.
*************************
A drafty poem that was inspired in part by Rommy’s childhood bogeyman prompt on Real Toads, though I’m not sure it really fits the prompt, as it is not really limited to childhood, but it came up thinking of the type of bargaining one does as a child (and an adult) to keep something difficult from happening. Drawing is mine–all rights reserved.
Explore posts in the same categories: poetry, UncategorizedTags: April 2017 poem, http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com, manicddaily, Still bargaining against the Fall, Still Dealing with no Eden poem, worry poem
You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.
ManicDDaily 
April 28, 2017 at 4:16 pm
Bargaining indeed. In the end we can’t make some deals no matter how much we want to.
April 28, 2017 at 4:37 pm
I think you nailed the hopeless state of the child cornered by the bogeyman. What a bewailing helplessness; and to become the parent of that child — the adult, anyway — is to carry that anguish forward into everything we can’t prevent. That tree is laden with dark knowledge.
April 28, 2017 at 5:18 pm
YES. I understand this, deeply. I still have that childlike bargaining in me, so often. Wonderful work.
April 28, 2017 at 8:53 pm
Wonderful poem anyway – which I’m glad I didn’t live without seeing.
April 28, 2017 at 10:01 pm
I like that you did your own drawing. I also liked the idea of bargaining.
April 28, 2017 at 11:20 pm
Some things you can’t bargain. Or sell either. That’s what makes poems like yours and stories like the play of Christopher Marlow, we get into the make-believe area with out minds.
..
April 29, 2017 at 12:06 am
The bargaining of a child…. We as adults have enough of a struggle trying to deal with what we can’t control. It is doubly painful for a child.
April 29, 2017 at 12:36 am
It is always worse to endure another’s suffering than one’s own.
April 29, 2017 at 12:45 am
I hear bargain and think of Faust, and wonder if that’s where we’ve been led.
I’m glad to see you posting again, k ~
April 29, 2017 at 6:42 am
This is such an incredibly poignant write!
April 29, 2017 at 9:03 am
That bargaining is so very real… even if it never works we try..
April 29, 2017 at 12:30 pm
It is so that our bargaining continues into adulthood. To see others suffering is difficult, often painful to bear, and we make promises to ourselves, our God, in an effort to change that that is often unchangeable. It is our humanity coming to the fore.
Anna :o]
April 29, 2017 at 1:44 pm
It’s a very human thing to want to find some sort of bargain to keep a bad outcome from coming to pass
April 29, 2017 at 11:10 pm
We are always making bargains, but you have the talent to draw them!