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Wednesday, February 01, 2012

Shpritzo (Prompt: Habit)


Maybe it was years
of being picked on
for being fat,

or being the middle child,

or my training to be a
comedy writer,

but there is an ongoing
internal monologue
that answers
everything I encounter

with a shpritz,
a comic insult,
a smart-ass remark.

They are unwanted
and arrive instantaneously:

in quiet moments reserved for intimacy,
at deathbed confessions,
during pompous sermons,
while reading narcissistic status updates
and I just can’t help it.

Being a professional
I’ve trained myself
to keep them in line,

but sometimes I release them
because I think they’re too good
to keep to myself,

and I often realize
I was wrong,

usually, 
a word or two too late.

Then I wonder
what light is it
that shines through me,

Jesus Christ or Don Rickles?



12 comments:

  1. ...or maybe some of both. (What a perfect last stanza: smart-assery about smart-assery!)

    but I'd view it as a talent, not merely a habit.

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  2. Whichever it is, or both, great write as always.

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  3. second one ~

    There are some words that are just itching to roll out of our tongue...

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  4. I also have a hard time keeping my inner smart ass silenced and in check. Great write!

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  5. I think it's both, Mosk. There is room for both sides of that coin... otherwise, we would not be human. Your poetry is completely honest and so evident that humor and heart go hand in hand. Love, Ameleh, back after her hiatus!
    http://sharplittlepencil.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/back-and-bad-and-buddah/

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  6. That ongoing internal monologue can be harmful to me sometimes, too.

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  7. I just loved this! :) Wish I could be there when one of them came out . . .to applaud. :) Thanks poet friend!

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  8. Oh, this is good, so true. I try to teach myself to bridle my tongue moreso than not. LOL.

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  9. I think having both is not a bad thing..My I am queen of the comeback :) Love your poem...

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  10. Sometimes hard to know which to keep silent about and which to share and have some giggles. Sometimes a fine line between being funny or crass. I would think you know by now when to use your humour, or not.
    I read your other link.... but didn't want to sign up for something but phewwww.. Scorching...no wonder the chocolate melted... haha... fab write ;)

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  11. no idea who Don Rickles is...def. need to check him out now..smiles

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