Bearing up

(based on suggestions from @_boobook_, @facelikethunder, @realnixwilliams, @spikelynch, @antipodeankate, @marklawrence and @dogpossum)

Piss on your feet call it remedy for snakebite

Snap open a pen and you’re MacGuyver

primed for anything except a feminist.

She’ll pluck open your techniques

spin you out a real adventure.

Crack open ouroboros find a limp snake

warped time running late with a mancold.

Tell me how you’d manage your period

in the jungle and we’ll pimp you out like

a carnival ride. Show me a tampon tree.

Forget survival, let’s go dancing.

Hubba bubba bubblegum boys and girls

don’t need grizzled gorillas or gladly

cross-eyed bears for Jesus, they need

Italian singers and baritone pizza.

Run hot on footsteps of adrenaline

replace endurance with ecstasy

Women in the lead, swing that spine

like the body of a man. Adventures

in rhythm ignore the extra hour’s sleep.

All of us wake before dawn

depending which dawn you mean:

we always wake before tomorrow.

in dreams we float unaided above jungles

and don’t take a camera crew along.

In dreams we’re the same colour.

Backlit with flying autumn dances.

Flat rivers mirror us, reflect back our

frightened eyes and we're surprised:

we adore them above survival levels.

_________________________________________________

Today's poem is based on suggestions from seven peeps:

• @_boobook_: "Running late"
• @facelikethunder: "Flying dreams"
• @realnixwilliams: "hubba bubba bubblegum!"
• @spikelynch: "Waking up before dawn."
• @marklawrence: "Daylight savings. Or time warps. The light in autumn. Loving ourselves. And @CastIronBalcony's huge Down under Feminist Carnival. Yes, I am being greedy tonight."
• @dogpossum: "Patrizio, this Italian superstar whose cd is being pimped on SBS. And Bear Grylls. please."
• @antipodeankate: "seconding @Dogpossum on Bear Grylls."

I've never understood Man vs. Wild. WHY? Much more fun to get your adrenaline from dancing, instead of eating bugs and breaking your shoulder.

This poem is a bit of a jumble, I don't think it entirely knows what it's doing. But I like the idea of adoring your eyes with your own eyes. Starting small.

Oh, and the bit about Jesus comes from the hymn "Gladly the cross I'd bear for Jesus", which when I was a kid always made me wonder how Jesus was connected to a cross-eyed bear.