Shrinkbait

He tells me I'm crazy, turns
up the tv, when I say...

Maybe Elvis really is loitering
by the sliced ham and bacon
but we're too scared to peek
through the fourth dimension to see.

I wonder aloud if spammers are aliens, 
trying to make binary contact, 
if souls of the dead still can make love, 
and if trees ever cry in the dark.

Thoughts unfurl through
my brain nightly, set loose
by the storm of awakening.

He asks me what does it matter-
these endless questions without
answers. He inquires if our
insurance will cover a shrink.

I shrug, use my toes as a rosary,
imagine quarks eating dead skin
and wonder if Copernicus would still
declare my head round after consulting
with Einstein on time, space and pi square.



Pris Campbell
©2003


Published in The Dead Mule, Spring Issue 2007

Artwork: Kim by Craig Robertson
  Click on his name to visit Craig's fascinating site.
His style ranges from realistic to expressionistic 

Music: Majyo

This poem took first place in the November 2004 Poetry Board League Competition, Judge's comments are below:

JUDGE'S COMMENT: This poem jumped out at me for its originality. While it appears to be a light weight subject it is rich in imagery and dares to take some risks. I think that surprising a reader and using humor in poetry is really underappreciated.
This poem satisfies on a few levels. The narrator is a dreamer( and most poets can identify with dreaming) and happily so (she shrugs off her partner's judgments) and shares her diverse and highly entertaining whimsy with us. The imaginative meanderings are treats, all by themselves. There's a sort of frenetic spilling of "her awakening" which makes one wonder just how far it will go. And the title, to me, was a bit of an ominous betrayal of the lighthearted tone of the poem. That niggling little doubt, the subtext of this poem, is: perhaps, just perhaps . . . she really might be shrink bait . . . 'what if her partner is right,' what if . .. thus giving us another dimension to the work. I like when there are no foregone conclusions. I like the spirit of open-mindedness, creativity, seeking, and a bit of fearlessness . . . but I also love that humility that
says . . . 'oh, I suppose I could be wrong or crazy or out of step with the world . . . and this little poem seems to pull that together rather nicely.



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