You inspire me, little muse. <br /> <br />With a girlish voice that <br />delivers a woman’s words, <br />you make me want to try. <br /> <br />I hear you, little muse. <br /> <br />The sharpness in the push <br />of your pencil on my skin, <br />opens me wide, and <br />the blood in the script <br />sprays my face with a <br />sticky heat that <br />I don’t understand. <br /> <br />I envy you, little muse. <br /> <br />You, with all the simple, <br />yet beautiful logic that <br />we seek to possess, <br />seem ungrateful of <br />the power that your <br />words inherit. <br /> <br />You dismiss that which <br />makes you worthy of <br />sing-song praises and <br />breathy, green sighs. <br /> <br />You wave your hand, <br />to make it all disappear, <br />but you do it slowly. <br />There is hesitation in the <br />gesture, an unwillingness <br />to commit to your own <br />renunciation. <br /> <br />A part of you <br />accepts your divinity, <br />but you teeter on the <br />thread that holds it together, <br />finding comfort in <br />proclaiming your own <br />unsteadiness. <br /> <br />No one will expect you <br />to make it to the other side, <br />if you make it clear <br />that you will fall. <br />No pretty, ruffled parasol <br />will ever hold you up. <br /> <br />No, you say, it’s better <br />to cower in the corner, <br />than to try to walk the line. <br />In that corner, the bloodletting <br />will be the art of your own design. <br /> <br />Your timidity <br />embarrasses me, <br />little muse.<br /><br />Tara Teeling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/muse-on-a-tightrope/
