PAD Day 17

Today’s challenge: title a poem with “All I Want Is ____” and go from there. So:

All I want is not to want things
that are pointless or painful to want
especially given how much I possess
that I thought I’d wanted, and do, but look
at how little I’ve done with it, and at
the feasts at hand I’ve not yet fully savored
so why my fool heart still covets more crumbs
of unearned idolatry, unsolicited joys,
and unconditional connections — I want
such senseless cravings to cease.
such senseless cravings to cease.And yet
all that I do not want to become
stays my hands from straying toward
the things that are not mine, no matter
the depth of my damnation — these days
through which I dogpaddle past
the siren serenades and the hollow gifts,
‘til my self-churned waves cast me upon
the shore of a story with a happy ending,
one in which I don’t find myself wanting.

– pld

(P.S. I don’t have the chops or know-how to match the html color code to the background within a reasonable space of time, so if you see the spacer-text in front of “And yet,” please just pretend it’s blank.)

3 thoughts on “PAD Day 17

  1. You can also use non-breaking spaces: “& nbsp ;” without the spaces.

    I like this, especially the final line and “but look/at how little I’ve done with it.”

  2. Love that inversion in the first line; I’ve always wondered, does that work in prose?

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