I slept and it crept:
brittle white china
a cold pressure
pressing down (and out)
the life of the world
No one really lives today
A few others scuttle past
but they are transient
animated only briefly
between warm oases
and safe havens
I alone stride
in wonder
at the paralysing power
The Earth still holds
over the might of man
My name is Skylance 
I thought for a moment the white china you referred to was heroin (a very pure form) but now I realise it’s snow. It’s great – I could feel the scuttling between the empty silences, and my knees went cold.
I love your tags – they’re just so silly, and they remind me of one of my brothers – he sends me similar texts. The other day he sent me one saying “The irony of the name bluegrass had never struck me.” When I texted him “It still hasn’t struck me.” he replied “But you did think of the massage.”
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Thanks Jane! I wanted to leave things as open to interpretation as possible exactly so people could take whatever meaning they wanted. You’re right in that I didn’t have heroin in mind though!
I’m glad you like the tags, writing them is become such a key part of my process now, and allows me that silliness even for serious pieces. Your brother sounds like a good laugh too 🙂
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As they’re so prominent it would be a shame to waste them, but I don’t think it would occur to most people to do what you do.
My brother is… interesting. He’s a frustrated poet who thinks he’s a frustrated lover.
Please don’t hunt him down to tell him I said that 🙂
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Well I’m not going to shout about their potential too much – want to keep my unique appeal as long as possible 😛
Ha ha your judgemental secrets are safe with me 😉 who doesn’t think of themselves as a lover?!
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Who doesn’t think of themselves as a lover? The majority of post-menopausal women 🙂 😀
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Ha ha as wickedly funny as ever, Jane! I’ll admit that’s not my area of expertise!
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First of all I thought this was about rats or mice, due to the title and how much of a hold something of nature can have over you if you are scared of them! Now I’m thinking it may be to do with spirits or ghosts and how the earth can take people from us? Alternatively it could be about raw emotion that you feel you have no control over? This has made me think quite a lot trying to work out what it’s all about! Great piece 🙂
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Firstly, hi and welcome! Thank you for stopping by and finding time to comment 🙂
I love that your interpretations were both so wide-ranging and (and I mean this wholly as a positive) so far from what I had in mind! The ambiguity was intentional though, so it’s nice to know that worked 🙂
I’m definitely going to go back over the piece with some of your suggestions in mind – looking at it from so many different angles is bound to stir some new ideas! Thanks again 🙂
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