Still Waiting

I've heard with time all wounds can heal,
But I'm not sure
If that's for real.
It's been a while since the shark attack,
But my head just won't grow back.

-B.C. Byron

Sometimes a short poem can really stick with you. This one came to me late in the night when I had nearly fallen asleep, like many of my stranger poems do. I was given a poetry challenge from a website to write about healing. Of course, I never go the traditional route when given a poem challenge. I thought all day about how I could twist the theme of healing in an unexpected way and nothing came to me. Sometime in the evening, I was scannimg Netflix and a show about dangerous animals stood out to me. I only watched the trailer for the show, but it was pretty disturbing. I went to bed thinking about animal attacks and bummed out that the time to complete the poem was nearly up and I had nothing.

Then that wonderful time came when the body is heavy and the mind is half asleep. Thoughts mix up in weird ways and connections that wouldn’t normally happen in the brain do happen. I keep my phone or a notebook near my bed every night hoping for poem inspiration during this brain-malfunctioning, half-awake time. This poem really seemed epic while I was in that dreamy state writing it down. When I woke up in the morning, I checked my notes with a vague memory of having written something cool. Boy, was I disappointed to see a whopping 5 line poem about a missing head. So, here you go. It is pretty catchy, though. I can’t seem to get it out of my head (pun intended).