Poem 20160121

i am full
i contain multitudes
does it matter if what i say
contradicts
what i said before

i didn’t say that
very well
do i contradict myself
it’s one of the multitudes
at fault

a singular wit
mouthing off
i’m sure

one word out of line
and the train jumps the track
o captain!
these contradictions
are hard to take
harder still
to reconcile
with the crowd in my mouth

and you thought
keeping my wisdom teeth
would put my incisors
out of alignment

what about all those souls

—–

By a weird coincidence, my Zen a Day calendar had this quote by Walt Whitman today, which is what I thought of when I saw Jane’s Challenge:

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

–Walt Whitman

Jane Dougherty Writes
Poetry challenge #14: Take a favourite line