Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Personal Challenge #3

Lolamouse challenged me to write something to my younger self.  Okay, but she's not gonna listen!



Even You, Goth Girl

(breaking the news to my younger self)

Nowww . . .

Your hair's its natural color,
and your piercings are all gone.
No need to line your eyes;
you're sporting crow's feet.

And, when someone calls you "mama"
they're not trying to turn you on.
They're just whining
cause they want something to eat.

Can you believe you got so square?
Can you believe you just don't care
about being cool anymore?

I know you planned a wilder life,
a pretty corpse by twenty-five.
But, you just kept on living,
and the living kept getting real.
Forty's come and forty's gone,
and you have everything
you never wanted
when you wanted everything.

Can you believe you got so square?
Can you believe you just don't care
about being cool anymore?

18 comments:

Fireblossom said...

Oh, but you are still cool on the inside, where it counts, MZ. Love the "but she's not gonna listen". A girl after my own heart!

I also like the way you wrote:

"and you have everything
you never wanted
when you wanted everything."

Nicely turned. I love Lolamouse's challenge, and what you did with it, Favorite.

Unknown said...

What a great way to start the day. I am ever amazed by the changes wrought on one soul in a single lifetime. This is a snippet of that tale. We just keep changing and rearranging. It's pretty dog-gone wondrous. Thank you Lolamouse for the thoughtful challenge. Thank you Mama Zen for stepping up to it and soaring.

Lolamouse said...

MZ,
Love what you did with the challenge! So, you were a Goth Girl, huh? Well, at least good Doc Martens go with anything! I can really relate to everything you say in this poem, especially the "you have everything you never wanted when you wanted everything" lines. Brilliant!

Scarlet said...

I love it MZ ~ awesome to peek at your younger self

The repetitive lines worked very well ~

Cathy Feaster said...

great response to the challenge :) You know, even if we could go back and tell our younger selves a thing or two...I dont' really think they'd listen!

Laurie Kolp said...

Ah, this is delightful... a wonderful prompt idea, too. I agree with Kim- how we change so much through our lifetime is amazing... a journey, for sure!

cosmos cami said...

Great job!
I love the repetitive questions because this seems so very familiar.
S'ppose we must all grow up sometime.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

What a TOTALLY COOL response to a wonderful challenge! This is true entertainment first thing in the morning and I so love it!

hedgewitch said...

Our beginnings do not our endings know, they say, and in pupa form we are a different creature, yet always the same DNA. Love your glance back at the way it was compared to the way it has to be, MZ.

Kay L. Davies said...

Fabulous challenge for Mama Zen, Lolamouse, and I love the response, MZ.
In my own wild days (yes, I had them) I hung around with someone who swore he would never live to be 40. He died at 32.
I sometimes think of him and what he missed.
"But you just kept on living,
and the living kept getting real."
He and I never understood that when we were 20-something. I'm so glad you understand it now, when
"you have everything
you never wanted"
and you'd probably die to protect the ones who call you "mama".
Looking forward to hanging around with you on Real Toads until you're Grandma Zen!
K

Ella said...

I loved this, I loved the way you expressed it~ Well Done! You are still cool! I think we can all relate ;D okay most of us?!

Mary Ann Potter said...

Loved it! This is quite a challenge. Glad you had to do it instead of me! 8-)

Rinkly Rimes said...

That's fantastic! I got right inside your head.''Having everything you never wanted'.....that sums it up so neatly. I was young in 1950, so my youth was much more staid than my old age is now proving to be! Can you believe that I'm having more fun at 80 than I did at 20? You've still got a lot to look forward to!

TALON said...

"and you have everything
you never wanted..." - those lines, Mama Zen, are both sad and uplifting at the same time.

Loved this!

Anonymous said...

sounds like reality turned out MUCH better than being "cool", MZ!
LOVE this! ♥

vivinfrance said...

I really loved this poem - slightly wry but so cheerful and happy with your lot. All our pasts are still there in our presents, having brought us here in style.

Susannah said...

Brilliant I loved it!
"and you have everything
you never wanted
when you wanted everything."
- is just wonderful. Nice writing Mama Zen. :-)

Kerry O'Connor said...

I've had to wait ALL week to say how much I love this poem! Such a wonderful idea for a prompt and this response, with its wise and bitter-sweet tone, smacked it out the ball park. Wonderful work!