Memo to me

(On having left the city behind.) 

The evidence of my reconstruction is everywhere.

Gold and diamond become little more than

pointless ornament, in the same manner

as a designer style apartment 

and the avarice I once employed 

are less than single grain of sand;

but even so, I suspect I weigh much 

the same as when I took my leave.

Presently, the journey is only part complete;

for though layer on flippant layer

of bounty has been peeled away,

I have still to harvest the full benefits 

of my molten heart; those immeasurable

billions of amorphous synaptic impulse.

But never fear, I will soon enough,

it is, after all, the nature of the beast;

And who knows, if fancy dictates and 

the board of directors carry the vote,

I might even enjoy motherhood

without the stain of disapproval 

from those higher tables I once graced.

cc:    the head of mergers and acquisitions   :))

Reviews

[barleygirl]

It's interesting to dig back & find this & note that it was posted 5 years ago. I wonder how things have changed? I love your bright creative way to express the push-and-pull relationship one might feel between having a career & being a parent. I think everyone should take long significant breaks thru-out one's career path & not just after retirement age when most people are too old to do a bunch of things (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Tony Jordan]

The sheen of the trinkets that the rat race offers pales in the brilliance of life's real treasures.
I love the Spike Milligan two-finger whilst blowing a raspberry salute at the end Beccy
... too funny

[jacob erin-cilberto]

i was raised in the city...in an upper middle class home...we moved away from the city and i at an early age moved away from that class's perceptions and expectations, and became somewhat of an outcast in my family---they didn't understand.

as we grow older, we become more cynical and less naive, and that is true...but we also become more of who we really are deep inside and get rid of those pretentious attributes...

i relate so much to this piece...damn, Beccy...you wrote me to a "t."

[Terpsichore]

If this 'memo' landed on my desk, I'd move heaven and earth to keep you from taking flight.

T

[M. Shepherd]

This is calm, measured revelation in the way that noticing drastic changes can feel as common as making breakfast. This piece speaks so strongly to my own escape from the city, from a poisonous culture that I once, if not exactly subscribed to, definitely was influenced by - to shed those layers of bounty as you've described here is a necessary step towards a cleaner wholeness, a radiance, towards where real life (now such an antiquated idea) begins.

[CD Campbell]

Very well written. I could pluck a petal from every review posted below and create a fitting response worthy of the work, but won't. I wonder the same thing that Woody wonders, feel the same as dana, etc. You have a wonderful way with rare and underused words, Beccy. CD

[Workvio]

Very lovely lines that speak to me of the discovered and realized lack of true worth and merit of all those things we claw and clamor after in our societal programmed quest for success and happiness that so seldom, if ever, brings to us both, and without happiness success is just an empty word defining an empty and meaningless life wasted upon groping after meaningless things that bring to us no sense of meaningfulness or purpose upon this tiny planet we call earth ... Success is found within the sparkling eyes of a child raised by its mother and father ... Family is the true success story, and the brightest stars in the heavens are those heavenly eyes of children and grand children who hold us to their hearts as the most successful people they have ever known, regardless of our educational, business, or financial endeavors, come fame, fortune, or failure ... Yet, you said all this so beautifully and in many less words than this old babbling fool from Texas ... Well done ...

[Woody]

this looks like the telling of a real situation. a new situation, unless I'm reading this wrong.
whatever the case, it is penned in your usual elegant hand. some of the lines are simply gorgeous.
does this call for congratulations, I wonder.

[h d e rushin]

in your poem "Abstractions" you come face to face with Beccy through the thickness of the thin
material of fate and all of it's measuring loops. Here the same Beccy has grown beyond
the lesions of neurological impairment and self loathing to challenge the falsified bullshit
lies that life can (will) sometimes offer:

'I have still to harvest the full benefits
of my molten heart; those immeasurable
billions of amorphous synaptic impulse"

How beautiful it is to see the fruit of liberation; the promise and allure of it. The memo and extravagance
of what if feels like.
wonderfully written...../dana

[charlie]

Am loving this from top to bottom...
Go, Beccy!