298.
It’s the shock of it
that numbs the demons. You seek
the streets you know best
the mapless underworld where –
how odd – now you feel at home
4/29/22
300.
The skinny girl laughs
Embarrasses me all right
I tell you I tried
I tell you I did my best
The skinny girl laughs again
5/12/22
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
The refuge in the first one is a good description of many of my dreams…(K)
The last one brought back memories of middle school – at the time when the cliques were coalescing… and I was not included…
Yes. That wonderful feeling of not only being left out but being laughed at.
Laughter can be so joyful but also so cruel. I can definitely remember times when the sound of someone’s laughter was cutting. That first poem made me laugh out loud. Today has been a tricky one so I very much appreciate that gift of laughter.
I hope never to laugh in a way that makes people feel bad, but it happens. When it’s laughing at someone on purpose, that is awful, I think.
The first one –the mapless underworld–and feeling at home. That sends my imagination going.
The second one–just makes me picture teen mean girls. Ugh!
Thank you. I like the mystery of the underworld (in whatever form). It has always seemed more interesting to me than the heavenly afterlife (in which since childhood I envisioned as a long version of sitting in church listening to sermons, I don’t know why that vs a paradise. Maybe my idea of a good afterlife is more ….???) anyway. And you are right about the second one. Mean girls. Junior high revisited. Ugh is right.
You’re welcome. Yes, that heaven image seems very bland. 🙂