rhetorical “i love yous”-
batted back and forth like flies,
that prey on hungry children
and drink water from their eyes..
caustic conversations, peppered
black,, with loathings mold.
while laser whitened smiles
veneer loveless, rotting souls..
a marriage of convenience,
fed on debt devoured dreams.
youthful passions, long succumbed,,
to god money’s siren screams…
credit cards ,and joint accounts,
the flesh on which they feed.
a living breathing sacrifice,,
to avarice and greed…
photo:
http://trygothic.deviantart.com/art/Love-Vs-Money-71053505
June 5th, 2008 at 8:38 am
wonderfully put. ‘Sad but true’ sadly sums up the situation found all too often today. Yet, for the most part, hasn’t the poem painted what has always been the norm?
June 5th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Amen to that Jodi! Powerful imagery in every stanza.
June 5th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Bravo! Very good and the picture is…picture perfect!
June 5th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Not exactly ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
Needs to be read aloud maybe with music.
(((((hugs))))
June 5th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
credit cards ,and joint accounts,
the flesh on which they feed.
a living breathing sacrifice,,
to avarice and greed…
Brava! Perfectly noted and eloquently shared….
June 5th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
yes–a power packed poem
June 5th, 2008 at 4:25 pm
You must be referring to 90% of the inhabitants of my home town…I’m sorry to say.
June 5th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
A very powerful commentary on today’s marriages, relationships,
prey on hungry children, drink water from their eyes…good and bold,
and often the children are inside the bodies of adults.
June 5th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
Sadly accurate in too many cases! Extremely powerful!
Hugs Giggles
June 5th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
dark love stories –my favorite kind.
June 5th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
Very very true:
‘..a marriage of convenience,
fed on debt devoured dreams…’
Thanks Jodi, for sharing the reality..
God bless.
(Your new Avatar is stunning)
June 5th, 2008 at 7:06 pm
Your words reflect like a mirror, a cracked portrait of what marraige for some has become these days. Too often true and yet, thank god . . . not for everyone. I love your writing!
June 5th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
This one gets to the heart of it. Our money lives for us. We’re vehicles for the movement of cash and it makes us less human. Your voice is really strong in this.
June 6th, 2008 at 12:41 am
This is so good! I wonder how many people recognize the image you have created? Well Done!
June 6th, 2008 at 6:09 am
I think you’re perfectly describing not just America but much of the world. And here it began after World War Two. Maybe it will begin to change
And really so many of us are guilty of youthful stupid marriages–that part might be with us forever. You have to be wise to see past today at 20 and how many of us are? Or just very cautious and if you’re cautious so young–I’ll take some recklessness.
June 6th, 2008 at 8:26 am
The balance of love and money. Yin and Yang must be found, but is true love so easily outweighed by dollars and cents?
June 6th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
See mah…It’s looking like i am going to have to do a write up on you also. Your site always touches me. Mommi you got the gift. I think you are like some kind of gift to those who feel alone. Do that thang then mommi and know i will be here to support you even on slow days. yaboi Husla3x
June 6th, 2008 at 12:21 pm
This is so well written.
You’re so amazing at writing, Jodi.
June 7th, 2008 at 3:32 am
Had to respond to this one, seeing the Libran scales are my birth sign.
It is so sad that money should even rank as a competitor with love. It should be, by moral rights, a non event. Sadly, that is not always the case.
Gemma
June 7th, 2008 at 4:25 am
paisley,
Are we too dumb to learn from others and past experience or are we doomed to repeat and repeat and repeat?
rel
June 7th, 2008 at 6:02 am
WoW
I perceived several angles from your excellent piece from which to absorb from but I chose the hope springs eternal angle.
We keep filling our heads with foreverafter love stories in movies and novels. Despite all of the empirical evidence to the contrary we perpetuate the myth that True Love will strike us like lightning from above and save the day
((sigh))
We toss the bouquet along with all of the empirical evidence that we had collected on the path to the altar. This is different. This is above the laws of Nature and Human Behavior.
Then why do men have so much of their sperm specifically designed to block and kill ‘other’ sperm, and why did women evolve with their fertile window disguised? Hmm?
We can overcome these obstacles with hard work, honesty, and luck, but it isn’t fair to the next generation to keep perpetuating the Ever After story…
even though I think that it’s wearing pretty thin.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:50 am
intense as usual. People really are very greedy.
June 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
The illusions of security and (inner) peace via prosperity steadily diminish what might otherwise be a meaningful existence.
June 7th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Hi Jodi,
Very intense, very graceful words.
Remind me of a passage/poem by Dr. Moorehead. (Although sometimes its attributed to the Dalai Lama for some reason.)
….”The paradox of our time”….
The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers;
wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints.
We spend more, but have less;
we buy more, but enjoy less.
We have bigger houses and smaller families;
more conveniences, but less time;
we have more degrees, less sense;
more knowledge, but less judgment;
more experts, but more problems;
more medicine, but less wellness.
We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.
We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.
We’ve learned how to make a living, not a life.
We read too infrequently and watch too much TV.
We have been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor.
We explore outer but not inner space.
We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we’ve split the atom , but not our prejudice.
We have higher incomes and lower morals; we’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality.
These are the times of tall men, and short character;
steep profits, and shallow relationships.
These are times of world peace, but domestic warfare;
more leisure, less fun;
more food, but less nutrition, and of pills that cheer, and quiet, and kill.
These are days of two incomes and more divorce;
of fancier houses, but broken homes.
It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stockroom.
June 8th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Hey paisley, what can I say that hasn’t been said? Love the original language and alliteration, really great! Take care,
Bob
June 8th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
This could be the theme song for my neighbourhood. Love and money are so interlinked now it’s hard to tell one from the other. Excellent piece.
June 8th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
A long line of comments here that I’m not going to read, but how nice for you to have so many fans. Your poem is amazing in how it flows and rhymes! And the truth of it, sooo bitter. I remember an old blues song. The refrain was, “it’s cheaper to keep her,” even though he was lusting after another woman. People do cheat, don’t they? We’re not like the faithful penguins as a species.
Excellent poem!