Michelle McDannold - December 2006
 
MONKEY BARS


Isn’t it just a bit usual these days
to be talking shit fuck?
I was reading this novel by this great
guy ‘so and so’, oh, it was only a few
years back, and it actually said
shit fuck. shit fuck.
then later on when I was reading some
other stuff–
poetry and the like, well ... and I had really
already noticed lots of cunts for some reason.
I’ve never really cared for that word, and don’t use
it myself
but back to shit fuck.
it’s losing power these days
you know, it used to turn heads
but even my mother doesn’t flinch anymore, when I let
it slip
...fucking shit.
it started for me on the playground, a game.
with Tracey, the toughest girl in town I wanted to be.

and Jeff, the dirtiest boy I wanted,
even in Grade 3.
man, don’t tell me you’re not born with it.
so, I learned all my shit fuck bastard piss
on the monkey bars
but I never really perfected it until the year I
worked in that
slaughterhouse, I was nineteen and desperate.
everyone there was desperate,
shit fuck became-- I ain’t takin’ no fuckin’ shit
piss off, bitch
suck my dick
and it became an art form...and second nature.
I know at times you gotta keep it in check
and I do try to tone it down
but damnit, it’s sewn deep.
and when people keep talking shit fuck shit fuck,
I hate to hear others say it sounds cheap,
`cause baby, it comes at a price.


Michele McDannold lives in rural Illinois, masquerading as a mild mannered housewife. She believes in…The String Theory, all lights should be blue, and chaos is the only way to get things straight. Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Remark and online at Zygote In My Coffee and The Indite Circle.