A Break From Our Regularly Scheduled Programming

I like poetry, sometimes... I get a poem every day in my inbox from The Writer's Almanac, and the past two poems have blown my mind.

Yesterday's was "We Bring Democracy to The Fish" by Donald Hall.

It is unacceptable that fish prey on each other.
For their comfort and safety, we will liberate them
into fishfarms with secure, durable boundaries
that exclude predators. Our care will provide
for their liberty, health, happiness, and nutrition.
Of course all creatures need to feel useful.
At maturity the fish will discover their purposes.


And Today's is "The Waitresses" by Matt Cook.

The waitresses
At the restaurant
Have to keep reminding
The schizophrenic man
That if he keeps acting
Like a schizophrenic man
They'll have to ask him to leave the restaurant.
But he keeps forgetting that he's a schizophrenic man,
So they have to keep reminding him.



I mean... both of them pull me straight into the words and make me think, without telling me to think, or beating the contradictions over my head. I love things that make me cringe, and the first one especially does. It's the best feeling because there are so few things that can leave you feeling physically nervous. It's the same reason I like bugs.

So, the purpose of this post is, hopefully, to help my sweet readers to feel something different today. And if that didn't do it for you, this should make you laugh.

Lunch time at school means sitting on the floor and cramming for a history quiz.