‘The Overflow’ by Sidnea Rohbyn
Oh.
Please excuse me,
I forgot you were here.
You can guarantee,
It’s really quite severe,
That I just won’t notice,
Yes, even when you’re talking.
My self-induced hypnosis
Is mistaken for gawking.
In one ear, out the other…
Ha. It never made the entrance.
I wouldn’t even bother,
Repeating your sentence.
Move on and come back later,
There’s a “closed” sign in my brain,
A bad communicator,
“Ohhh, it’s happening again”.
I swear I was listening,
Maybe ten minutes ago?
But now I’m envisioning
That pipe in my head…
Oh, what was it called?
…
Ah, that’s right!
The overflow.
Wow, thank you Sid! I was very lucky to have heard Sid read this almost immediately after they’d written it. We had discussed a prompt from a few weeks ago, which you can read here. This is Sid’s response.
I shared mine in the comments of the post, it felt very personal at the time, but I try to practise what I preach and share when I can.
So here it is:
‘Fairies’ by Rachael
“There are fairies at the bottom of the garden you know?”
My grandad said.
“Go and find them
Don’t trip.
Clean the leaves from your shoes before you come back in.”
“I can’t find them grandad, what do they look like?”
“Tiny little ladies in pretty dresses with sparkling wings.”
“Ok.”
The fairies weren’t there you know.
#
“Don’t mind her, she’s away with the fairies!”
Was I?
Eyes open but seeing nothing. Zoned out. A coping mechanism?
I wasn’t away with the fairies.
I was in the zone, I didn’t really hear:
The fire alarm
The question
The telling off
The fart
#
“Mum! Mum Mum!
Why are you ignoring us?”
I wasn’t, I was in the zone.
“Sorry darlings, I was away with the fairies then wasn’t I?”
I was in the zone,
Bills
Meal plans
Calenders
Social events
#
“Where’s mum?”
“Let her be, I think she’s in the zone.”
“Ok.”
I was, I was in the zone.
Another world, a house, three women, war, ghosts, transatlantic voyages, death, visitations, fairy hunting, learning from the generations, my world, but not mine, another zone, zoned out.
Away with the fairies.
March Poetry Readings