a poem

This is what was going though that strange brain.

That's me eating out of (Brianne's?) hand on lunch break during my senior year of high school. We were emulating something we had just heard about called "pony play". Do yourself a favor and don't google that at work. Anyhoo when I wasn't being a complete weirdo with my favorite people, I did things like write poetry.

I'm basically shit at poetry but somehow I did okay on this one. It's a copy/ change poem which means I used someone else's number of words per line and parts of speech. Think of it like a mad lib except you have to choose every word, instead of just a few. With that much help, I was able to write something that I think is still relevant even 10 years later.

So anyway, here it is.


"Appeal to Your Soul"
by Juli Keele

They, the perpetually stupid,
hate a fresh breath
of the individual notions they've abolished.
We who love introspective thought,
need a megaphone to convey
individuality and truth
above silence and all it's terror.
For media-fed lives
for every time we're ambushed
by underfed and overpaid celebrities
for fulfilling lives, we need
the truthful self-knowledge
of the meditative walk, the quiet moments.
For whoever has just watched a stupid reality T.V. show
or taken another picture of themselves in the bathroom
or felt unloved or sold out
give yourself the power, you deserve it.
You need love for you mental health, your spiritual wellness.
The girl whose clothes don't match the picture.
The harsh words at Senior Prom.
The meal that ends up uneaten.
But mainly because you need it-here and now
as you sit emulating Ashlee Simpson
staring at your manicured nails
after the girls who do it better
came strolling by and simply
sneered and sniffed at your outfit
and said to each other "see that's why
you never use your mother's closet"




It's been so long that I have no idea what the original poem was or who wrote it. If anyone recognizes the form, please let me know so I can give credit where it is due. If you love this poem or hate it or are just simply "whelmed" by it, feel free to leave comments- you don't have to be a member and can leave them anonymously if you choose.

Thanks for reading!