Maggots

WriteEditSeek on Jun 6, 2009

Tags: creative writing, how to write poetry, maggots, Poetry, snakes, stream of consciousness

This is an example of a stream-of-consciousness poem. I wrote it in five minutes and then spent 20 minutes polishing it several days later. In order to write your own stream-of-consciousness poem, grab of piece of paper and start quickly jotting down whatever comes to your mind. Do NOT censor anything. It’s important to write down your first thoughts, without trying to analyze them or polish them. Next, let your thoughts sit at least overnight before revisiting them. You’ll be surprised at what you have written. It will seem as if you had a poetic muse who helped you compose your thoughts. Give it a shot.

The head demon maggots tell me,
“It’s time, it’s time, it’s time!”
They’ve weaved and wrapped themselves
around and through and in
the curvatures and lumps of my cottage-cheese-filled brain;
They grope and grope and grope,
breaking off bits of my mushy brain,
threatening to produce a clotted blood curd that’ll do me in;
“It’s time, it’s time, it’s time,” they insist:
time to be released from the dank, dark dungeon,
where they’ve spent too much time sweetly, softly cajoling
the participants of the rodent race;
“It’s time, it’s time, it’s time,” they scream,
time to spit their bit and be heard;
They’re devious, deceptive, and divine:
creatures of the night and creatures of fright,
with boiling blood and bubbling bile,
with intently roving, beady black-and-gold eyes
and slippery skin,
shed time and again and again;
yet don’t bother looking:
you’ll never see their fleshy innards;
they’ll split apart and multiply in the quantum field of
one become two, become seven, become thirteen million;
You’ll only sense their vigilance and their readiness and their impatience:
“IT’S TIME! IT’S TIME! IT’S TIME!,”
as they too take over your ever-so-slowly dizzying, rumbling, sludge-filled brain