Poetry Maloney’s Garden

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Hey all, I’m Breandan Maloney, a music educator, composer, and Texan currently attending college in Indiana. This is a secondary poetry thread to my main one that’s been floating around for the past three years. This one is a curation thread of only my favorite original poems and revisions thereof in no particular order. This thread will be a little cleaner and less experimental, so if you’re not one for scrolling through 11 pages of poetry doodles, this may be more your style. If you have questions, comments, or critiques, please leave them in a post reply and I’ll get to them immediately. If you like what you see, I have countless more of varying quality on my main thread, linked above.

 

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“On My Family” — November 25, 2021


It’s the feeling of walking into a jewelry store
and behind the counter is a monkey in a tie
(and nobody else is there).
It’s the feeling of wondering what the monkey will do
(Are they civilized?)
(Did they choose to wear the tie?)
since nobody else is there.
It’s the feeling of seeing a monkey trying her best
(to operate a cash register,
to keep an inventory,
to run the whole shop)
because nobody else is there.
It’s not your shop — you don’t work there
— you’ve never seen this monkey before
— you don’t even know how to run a jewelry store —
so you wonder if the monkey is handling it well
(since, after all, nobody else is there).

It’s the feeling of being at a family dinner
(when you’ve never had a family
and often didn’t have dinner
but now you have both)
and it’s wonderful
(because the people who love you are there).

 

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"Just After" -- December 16, 2021

I take in the music
after making the worst mistake of my life
and I want to make it again
and again
and again
because I don't want to quit trying

but that isn't love
and sometimes you just have to be silent
and take in the music
and write the next part