Member-only story
cords
a mess of cords next to the couch,
some shooting out of the wall, others
sprouting out the power strip I’ve been
using for far too long — I’m pretty sure the
surge is no longer protected after about a
decade, but that’s life — we keep things
connected well beyond their span of
usefulness… and everything around us
becomes a tangled mess because of it…
electronic cords will be the death of me,
an evil that seems to be an absolute
necessity — laptops, phones, gaming
consoles, chargers for hair trimmers,
nose trimmers, ear trimmers, ball trimmers,
head spinners and light dimmers, and here
I am a real winner of life’s distraction lottery,
stomach all tied up in knots, seeking cheap
electronic thrills to dissolve the fear and
break up the monotony… cords they attach,
plug in, and outright extend, but why is it
that I can’t seem to detach, release, feel free,
take my finger off the pulse and say no,
to strangers, to friends, family, coworkers,
where does it end? the pressures that stack
and twist, curl up, and get frayed at the ends,
I know, I know, you all get the gist… but these
cords, they won’t quit! energy flows through
them, as I’ve offloaded every basic capacity,
every cognitive ability, to a thing, a machine,
to the point, I no longer feel the meat cords
within me, the veins, and the tendons —
I think my body itself needs some amendments,
because I’m too caught up in excessive
comparisons to reach any real self-acceptance…
