I use poetry to avoid the shit and it’s written.

I don’t want to write and I have to.

Collapsing under the strain of age and lack of maintenance
trapped in sewer drains defacing man made lead pipes

every body poops and the words become manure
after the words are looked at, ingested
the meanings change after the words are written

misread, misquoted, misunderstood
the words long gone from my fingers
not fear it but feel it in my bones

I have to write and it scares me, makes me feel failure.
I have to write and I don’t want to do it.

****

This was originally written backwards and I didn’t like it.

I was inspired to rewrite it based on a story from the TED talk with Elizabeth Gilbert about her meeting with American Poet, Ruth Stone.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

My poem isn’t rewritten from the last word to the first but it works for me now and it accomplishes what I need it to accomplish.

Do you have a story, poem, situation or circumstance if rewritten from end to beginning, would work better for you?