Narcissus Does Selfies
Narcissus, your hair
has thinned and been replaced in part;
you check this on your reflecting mobile app.
Tweet yourself the night away.
Your stout insipid chest
sports a tie not yet removed.
Its long tongue could be
the tweeting finger, even your
fingertips are pretty. Beautiful to you –
right down to an up-pointing
wagging digit pointing to the stars
you see in the well. Traffic for you
going one way; each tweet
as if another selfie.
Benita Kape © 21.4.2018
And now for our (optional) prompt. In her interview, Brim provides us with several suggestions for generative writing exercises, and we’d like to challenge to today to tackle her third one, which is based in the myth of Narcissus. After reading the myth, try writing a poem that plays with the myth in some way. For example, you could imagine that imagine the water is speaking to you, the narcissus flower. Or you could write a poem in which the narcissus berates the Kardashians for stealing their neurosis. Or a poem that comments on the narcissism of our time, i.e. beauty and body obsession, etc.
benitakape 