Poem

[solspeak]

I'm delaying on my other post to write down a poem I saw on the dorm bulletin. 

    Finally, Some Concrete Career Advice

    Don't be an actor. God observes you
    violent in a scene and, thinking it is real, mistakenly
    adds you to Hell. This happens all the time.
    It's like when I traveled 
    across eight states in shattering
    pain to curl beside L as she left this Earth, only to later
    have a dream I'd instead stayed home
    eating fruit cups and sewing a patch on my jeans.
    I didn't know a dream
    could undo a true event, uncement it,
    but it did—from then on, I hadn't gone, and how
    do I live with myself now, I ask each day—

There was no author mentioned. (But internet researcher rionleanheart found it to be Natalie Shapero.)

It sounds like a story about thinking a dream could overwrite a real event. An odd happening where it's possible to feel guilty over something that didn't happen that you didn't do, that you did the opposite of. How strange. It makes me think of moral OCD or other forms of religious horror. 

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

I really like this poem; thank you for sharing it! Looking it up, the poet seems to be Natalie Shapero.

[solspeak]

Glad you liked it! And nice find about the author. I'll add it to the bottom of the entry.