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The Sunday Poem: Rich Boucher... Whatever You Decide To Do I Will Support You

This morning's poem is quintessential Rich Boucher: smart, ironic, imaginative, kind…and yet filled with some sort of comedic horror.

Rich is featured this Wednesday, Jan. 16th, at the MAS Poetry Slam and Open Mic event at Winning Coffee Co., 111 Harvard SE. It starts at 7:00. Sign-up at 6:30. See you there.

Whatever You Decide To Do I Will Support You

She is screaming at everyone on the street;
this woman is giving the crows behind her teeth
their freedom with her wailing.
She’s Jim’s wife, and Jim is about to die.
The paramedics shuffle and worker ant
their way around and over the couple.
The morning light is harsh blue sun on everything;
one car looks like it’s been thrown
into the front window of a small laundromat
by a giant and frustrated child.
Jim is on the stretcher, an oxygen expression on his face
and he is coming in and out of waking,
beeping in and out of living
and she is crying
and screaming
Jim, don’t leave me like this
Jim, our kids
and suddenly
I recognize that this is my moment
I have something to do right here and now
and so I walk through the police tape,
brushing the people out of my path like tall corn;
I am an angel in plainclothes
when I lean down over Jim
down over him
with a scroll in one hand
and a dagger cut from a brick
that was pulled from a street in Heaven in the other
and I tell him
go ahead, Jim
you can go now
there’s nothing here for you;
this world is full of hate
so go, Jim, go to the light
and she begins to yell at me,
demanding to know who I think I am
and asking me what gives me the right
and then just like that Jim goes;
I squint my eyes and see his cellophane soul
jellyfishing out of his chest
and up into the blinding top of the sky;
she lunges at me
bashing me hard on my chest
I hate you, she says,
and I look up towards Jim;

he’s still ascending, heading for the bright clouds
and I say see, Jim?
I told you; there’s nothing but hate here;
you’re lucky to be alive.

Poetry submissions are welcome. Email theditchrider@gmail.com

4 members like this

Comment by Margaret Randall on January 13, 2013 at 8:07am: Rich, this is fabulous. All the special touches I have come to expect from you and more. You are the greatest! Barbara and I will be there tonight for sure.

Comment by Don McIver on January 13, 2013 at 8:45am: "cellophane soul/ jellyfishing out of his chest..." wonderful description.

Nice work.

Comment by Aaron Greenwood on January 13, 2013 at 10:27am: I think you have the heart of a Wallace Stephens blended with fresh squeeze of Lawrence Ferlinghetti and spiced with nice heaping of, well, yourself. You are original. You have grown significantly since I have known of you. You have always been one of my favorite poets. Your fearlessness is in your willingness to try anything regardless. Beyond your performance ability you offer meaning. I prefer my poetry straight up, no chaser. I like poems that offer something intellectual and emotional but most of all those poems that prompt one to think. After all a poem is a communication. You communicate well.

I take the title “Whatever You Decide To Do I Will Support You” as an empty promise. Throughout our lives we are lied to. I ask, has Jim and his wife stayed together out of lonesomeness and fear. What is the meaning of her scream? Is it because she cares for Jim or the reality she may be on her own. (In these times of extreme sensitivity, I should point out that the fear of being alone has no gender specificity nor does its cohort dependency.) I wonder, if when she says “I hate you” she is saying it to Jim, as he is released from the Cave we all live in.

Comment by Rich Boucher on January 13, 2013 at 12:56pm: Margaret - thank you so much for your words! I am so glad to see this poem up here, and I'm looking forward to seeing you and Barbara on Wednesday night!

Comment by Rich Boucher on January 13, 2013 at 12:56pm: Don - thank you for that. I was hoping that image would work for what I was picturing in my head.

Comment by Rich Boucher on January 13, 2013 at 1:00pm: Aaron - what can I say? I am very moved and happy to see what you wrote. The part about my having grown I found especially encouraging. It means so much to me. And yes, I think that Jim's wife yelled "I hate you" at the speaker of the poem, perhaps because she knew it was too late to direction her emotions to Jim. I think that's a good, solid call.

Thank you so much, Aaron. Straight up, no chaser. :-)