Weakness
I wrote two for Three Word Wednesday - this forward and reverse chained hay(na)ku is the first one. This was inspired by a post on Brian’s blog, “I Detest Labels”. This week’s prompt was to use the words “sticky”, “avoid”, and “class”. Enjoy.
-Nicole
admissions
of weakness
become sticky labels
attaching to skin
covering it
completely
you
soon disappear
beneath the paper
and gummy glue
then some take
up sharpies
and
write
insults upon
your labeled self
all other see
are those
epithets
which
sink beneath
the labels into
your very flesh
you become them
you could
succumb
to
them and
your name transform
into a class
of dysfunction
defining
you
simply by
your admitted weakness
this is why
people might
avoid
sharing
the very
things that could
break them in
everyone else’s
eyes
Written 7/23/08
© 2008 Nicole Nicholson. All Rights Reserved.
This is so good and so true for so many of us. Some external and some internal until you can no longer tell your skin from the labels.
Rose
xo
people do avoid you when you admit weakness when in reality you’re stronger then them. I liked this very much
Oh, how true!
I got a “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” mentality out of this. If someone calls you dumb enough times, you start to think you are. If someone calls you a slut enough times, you start to think “well, I may as wel get the enjoyment out of the label if I’m never going to escape the label.”
Sad. Labels are sad.
I love the “name transform into a class of dysfunction.”
Oh, you pulled a total Greg on that one! Dude, don’t be such a Lenny.
And yes, that is indeed a reason not to admit to failings. Mistakes, sure. But character flaws and the like? Nuh-uh.
You described my current state of mind exactly!
Practice makes pleasure profitable
Thank you, everyone. I think if more of us admit our flaws and mistakes, maybe we can make the world better. We’re tricked into hiding our tender, weak spots. Problem is, if you spend all of your time hiding, you may not spend any of it living.
-Nicole