Month: November 2024

Round Holes – 30th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 9 Comments

Often bewildered
A cultural disconnect
I don’t belong here
I don’t belong anywhere
A choice I made long ago

Another planet
Aliens walk among us
A sideways side-eye
Weird welcomes may be hiding
Daggers and fists held in check

Heads down and bum up
The square pegs will never fit
Scared of the unknown
A slow assimilation
Under cover of the night

Who am I to say?
I’m not one but the other
Out in the wide-open
Searching for a hole to hide
Keep quiet, wait for my moment

It’s us versus them
Until accommodated
Compelled to fit in
Or stay along the margins
Til my tribe reveals itself

Often bewildered
Aliens walk among us
Scared of the unknown
Searching for a hole to hide
Til my tribe reveals itself

A garland tanka shared with the Moonwashed Weekly Prompt – Otherness

In Opposition – 27th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ 6 Comments

Defined by dualities
A refusal to conform
There’s no moral dilemma
Opposition being born

What sacrifices are made
Challenging the status quo
Protest against injustice
Opposing the mainstream show

Countering counterculture
The margins are underground
Narrative struggles remain
Where opposition is found

The conflict of one’s desire
Families beggar belief
Carving out personal faith
Opposition brings relief

Shared with Poets and Storytellers United – opposite concepts

Peripheral Vision – 24th November 2024

~ shaun tenzenmen ~ Leave a comment

It was only a moment ago
the skies spoke to you the possibilities
wider and deeper than a young mind could conceive

Then, as if to ruin the show
came the treadmill of responsibilities
now a raging river to erode all that you did believe

Do you see it standing there?
A black doorway in peripheral vision
a slow beckoning of danger, awesome and ajar!

Will it lead to a new life somewhere
and are you ready for this decision?
Where else to go once you’ve already come this far?

Inspired by a part of this article in The London Review of Books called Gloves on by Anne Carson, discussing dealing with Parkinson’s.