Here we go for another ride on TFE's Poetry Bus, driven this week by Terresa
Our prompt:
Our prompt:
Confirmation
They are so pretty in their white dresses
the boys in their suits
Their families have gone to so much trouble
Everybody is leaping around
Excited
They are so pretty in their white dresses
the boys in their suits
Their families have gone to so much trouble
Everybody is leaping around
Excited
There are cakes and firecrackers
Confirmation!
More than Baptism,
or First Communion,
Where God and Jesus were foisted upon you
In Confirmation you took them in yourself.
You said Yes. Yourself.
but
What if all that reading and studying
took you to No?
How could you, in your shy thirteen,
Say No
to your parents
and the sisters
and the priest
and to all your aunts who have been so busy dressing you and preparing the table?
You tell your first real lie.
.
Confirmation!
More than Baptism,
or First Communion,
Where God and Jesus were foisted upon you
In Confirmation you took them in yourself.
You said Yes. Yourself.
but
What if all that reading and studying
took you to No?
How could you, in your shy thirteen,
Say No
to your parents
and the sisters
and the priest
and to all your aunts who have been so busy dressing you and preparing the table?
You tell your first real lie.
.
14 comments:
A powerful choice. And brave...like it very much.
x
Speaks to me and my own experience quite powerfully Nancy.
Agree with Rachel; brave is the word. At 13, I didn't have much of a mind of my own, so no lying then.
It's so interesting all the different results from this one, but yes this image is very evocative of communion and confirmation and I like your interpretation.
Wonderfully different from any other I have read so far. I enjoyed it very much. And serious into the bargain!
Wow - very powerful. I grew up Southern Baptist & we didn't have confirmation - but our baptism was pretty much the same thing. And, yes, much easier to lie than to disappoint.
That's such a fresh take, the "foisted upon you" line is great and I wasn't expecting the "but" at all. And the end line is, so far anyway, an absolutely unique take on the image, and yet so, so appropriate. It just works.
Bravo!
Ooh! Ouch! But how true!
Wow. You can't know how this hit home with me. At fifteen (not thirteen here in the States), my daughter told me for the first time that she just didn't buy it. We didn't force her to go through it. As she said: "Do you want me to stand up and tell a lie?" My answer, of course, was no...but it rocked me and my own certainty that I knew her. Can we ever know someone else, really?
very apt poem for the time of year that's in it.. I remember this time well, I brought a donkey with the money I got, so all the mindless studying was worth it :-)
loved this! cheers!
Topical and different.Interesting and well expressed, intriguing.
Wow. Incredible words and that image. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Powerful stuff here! Wow.
PS: As Poetry Bus Driver this week, I added a link to this on my post, hope you don't mind. :)
Not knowing the verdict until the last line pulled me through. Original treatment of the prompt & a very good one at that!
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