Over it
A free verse poem
--
I’ll often climb a gate
instead of opening it
just because I can.
My bendy body lets me,
wants to,
finds it joyous
to spend half-a-second in the air
before it meets the Earth.
As I take off,
like bird from branch,
I’m temporarily unstuck from life:
those red kites understand.
If I look back, there’s a dogwalker sniggering,
thinking I am too blonde and stupid,
frail and female,
to work the mechanism or lift the weight.
Sometimes they helpfully point out
that there’s a lever on the gate
or lift the rope from ‘round the post,
which they assume I’ve missed.
But it is they who’ve missed the point.
I’m here to live
not just exist,
(so go pick up that sh*t
and mind your biz).
I like to make a mental note
of just how fast I can accomplish the manoeuvre:
grasp, then — step — swing— soar
before I land
as though rehearsing my escape
across the fields,
with something stolen in my hand.
I’ll take the long way round.
I’m happy to retrace my steps
a dozen times
for each and every visit
past that same old yew
will show me different lines
across this heaven that I’ve found.
A different view;
a different breeze
carrying new sounds.
I never take a map
because those lines on paper
don’t light up my brain.
But when you say my name
or when I find a gate
I recognise
and climb it once again,
I am aglow.
Mine’s not the easy route,
I know,
but it’s the way I’m going to go.
Amy Knight 2021
This poem was inspired by new Spring walks across increasingly familiar fields.
I finally decided that yes, I can write poetry that is “funny, edgy and irreverent” so I’d like to shout out Joe Váradi for creating “a dedicated home for poetry that dares to be silly, quirky, edgy, irreverent. Poetry that delivers entertainment, and maybe even a profound message here and there, without taking itself too seriously.”
If you’ve not read it yet, I think you might also enjoy this one. A x
