Maslow's slave

[Doreen Peri]

I pour coins from the jar, count
them up, put them in a plastic bag.
I walk to buy a jug of milk. I spill
the coins on the counter. The clerk
is seated, then rises at my insistence.
I am thirsty. I buy milk with coins.
My skin is dry, overheated.

I breathe with the assistance of an inhaler
almost depleted. I sleep sporadically.
My dreams are cinematic. There are empty
houses with brightly colored rooms, pets
which demand my attention, cars without
steering wheels, tents and floods, people
with vacant stares, people I do not know.

I grow tired of the dream.
I awaken. I lock the deadbolt.
I return to bed. I drink a glass of milk
to wash down aspirin. I want to sleep.
I wrestle with the sheets.
My legs are wrapped tight.
I am cocooned.

The dreams come again.
I am at the bottom of a pyramid.
I try to tip the pyramid on it's side.
It is heavy but I push it until it topples.

I push again to stand it
on it's tip but it is unsteady. It teeters.
It turns inside out and inverts
itself. I am Maslow's slave.
I lie in a shallow grave,
inhaling dirt.

I awaken, thirsty.
I drink a gallon of water then piss
out my waste. I chase myself in and around
equilibrium.

It is summer. I get dressed and go outside.
I lie prone on a sun-heated rock.
I am a reptile. I blend into the earth,
my ecological niche.

It is not Maslow's fault. Do not blame
the illustrator. I have ceased to be the
creator of will. I want to but I cannot.
I am deficient – a paralyzed low- level
dweller.

The artist wants a woman to teach.
I am nobody's lover.

dp.7.12.08

[hester_prynne]

"I chase myself in and around
equilibrium."

Man this line is stellar, amongst many others.
Fantastic piece here Dor....blown away....
H

[Lightning Rod]

http://two.not2.org/psychosynthesis/articles/maslow.gif

[Doreen Peri]

thanks hester

thanks, maslow, for the illustration

please do not blame the illustrator

lightning rod? hate to say it again, i do appreciate the illustration but you're hotlinking

why don't you copy it and put it in your own photo hosting account then refer to it here? it really would be better than hotlinking... cause hotlinking is stealing other people's bandwidth

god this is tiring.... sigh... my energy is obviously already depleted...

thus the poem

thanks

[WIREMAN]

writers on the ropes say the craziest things...swing it sister swing....

[Lightning Rod]

and oh yeah, doreen
I really liked the poem

the dream portions were vivid

this is one of the best things you've done in a while

[Doreen Peri]

thanks mark

i don't know what "on the ropes" means

here we go again... lol.. dumb doreen doesn't get it

i'm looking it up but i can't find it... sigh...

thanks for reading

[Lightning Rod]

thanks mark

i don't know what "on the ropes" means

here we go again... lol.. dumb doreen doesn't get it

i'm looking it up but i can't find it... sigh...

thanks for reading

search 'boxing'

[Doreen Peri]

thanks clay

it's a different voice... a different style for me... more staccato ... not as rhythmic and musical.. but hey that's how it came out

[stilltrucking]

Maslow
yeah I was his slave too

he made some serious errors in his research, fallacies of logic

I can't tell you more cause I been weed wacking again and that

takes a part of my brain that is out of kilter right now.

I will ramble on about Maslow in another post on another board at another time.

As for the poem, it blew my socks off
It is a hard poem for me doreen
Hard is the new easy for me
I love hard poems

I should not even reply after reading it only once
But I am sitting here in the after glow of it.
and I must say'
Bravo!

[Doreen Peri]

thanks, jack

sorry for the depressing topic

had to write it so i could move on to comedy



coming soon to an internet near you

[tarbaby]

Sorry about the sock puppet change, "

the devil made me do it the first time the second time I did it on my own" billy joe shaver

can't think of an emoticon for how I feel about the poem
I think I need an emoticon that looks like a diamond
hard as a diamond and as refractive (not sure of word choice, I think refractive might be the right word)

I will post more on maslow
but for now I can only see it visualy

it should look like this

[mtmynd]

introspection.
never hurt anyone.
well done.

[Doreen Peri]

Cecil.... That's about all you can do at the bottom of the pyramid. Survival is the work. It's very tiring.

Jack, yeah, I flipped it upside down in the dream but it didn't last long. As you can see, when you do it, you have to read backwards and upside down. As if survival wasn't hard enough. You become a lysdexic doing a handstand. Whew! Talk about tiring!

....

thanks for reading, you two

[tarbaby]

Dee I will photoshop it and make it easier to read
when I post to my forth coming Maslow's Slave article

I am trying to get from that dark space under the base, the weight on my back will be the same but it will be more focused
narrows my focus, and also being under the tip instead of the base lets in more light
I am not good with visuals I will need to write that out.
it just seems more oppresive under the base.
All metaphorical of course
still weed wacked
probably making no sense
later
make it more clear I hope




Funny not sure who that woman you need is, at first I thought you might have meant your daughter, but after reading it again I think you mean yourself

Man doreen I read a poem by Anne Sexton over thirty years ago, read it and re read it but it was only last year that I really got it.

thanks for being a cyber pal
I appreciate it if you cut me some slack on tarbaby. for a while.

stilltrucking is hurtin
stiff upper lip and all that
I thought I should change my sock puppets for a while.
I know that makes no sense
Sounds superstitious
like changing my socks to change my luck

this text box needs a lot of editing
don't let it give you a headache
going to repost it elsewhere
but not delete this