Peg -Myers
Wild and Tender
My therapist asks if I’ve ever felt lightning
strikes across soft light pink plains,
if I’ve ever seen stars with my eyes
closed, if I’ve ever broken my
personal record in suicide drills.
She’s sitting in an Eames chair, and I am trying
to choose the best multiple-choice answer to
unexpected questions coming at me like Magic
Johnson’s no-look passes, my mind spinning with memory
like a basketball on Larry Bird’s fingertip.
Bruised words drip from my chin while
diary entries wrapped in linen bandages
line the roof of my mouth, trying to stay
preserved. My stomach, a whirlpool of bulimic
ghosts drowning in alphabet soup, when all the kid in me
wants to do is plop down, sit crisscross applesauce on
her couch, and open my notebook. I’d say,
ask me anything, and she’d go for the jugular
of my childhood, but it’s okay because when I write, I never feel
like I’m going to throw up.
scaredstraight
my voice thriving
on triggers
About the Author
Peg Cherrin-Myers (they/she) is a self-taught poet living in Michigan. Betrayed by their Midwest Hoosier background, they drive a pickup and dip peanut butter sandwiches into chili. Their useless skill is inducing goosebumps on command. Peg is a 2021 Trailblazer Contest finalist, a 2022 Touchstone Award winner for best haiku, and a 2024 Touchstone Award winner for best haibun.
Wonderful energy and originality in this haibun. It is truly ”strange”–what one literary critic says is the signal of genius. So much to like! I like the therapist’s wild questions, which immediately take everyday life into exotic dimensions; I like the many unexpected, surprising, moving phrases/sentences, such as ”Bruised words drip from my chin while diary entries wrapped in linen bandages line the roof of my mouth, trying to stay preserved. ” (A thrilling encapsulation of the process of writing from the wound.) I like the loose, lyric lines of the poem; it’s a good container for the barreling breathing you’re doing–over so many waterfalls at once! And I like the haiku, which is itself a ”wild and tender” commentary on the ordered disorder of trauma and voice, including the subtle, multiple way you assert an aspect of your identity by crossing out ”straight.” The haiku echoes and completes the rest of the piece–and presents its own surprise. Thank you for a commanding round of goosebumps!
Hey Bill!
What an awesome commentary on my poem! I love it!
Thank you for responding and supporting my work.
Your feedback is keeping that energy going, thank you!
Peg
The retired therapist turned into Queen of Swords Poetry
Not as in Mentor, but as in Lover
No longer in a closed room with confidentiality and boundaries,
but in a public display of love
Just like Faith Hill is singing to Tim McGraw…
Her heart takes flight.