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Amanda M. Fulmer<br />
Q-Tip<br />
What is poetry, anyway, except ear wax removal?<br />
Poetry<br />
dance<br />
song<br />
painting<br />
playing instruments<br />
making drawings<br />
clay pots—<br />
love is<br />
all a form of self expression<br />
screaming<br />
whispering<br />
drawing<br />
articulating<br />
murmuring<br />
enunciating<br />
mumbling<br />
snorting<br />
shouting out your insides.<br />
The closest canal from your mind is straight<br />
through your ears.<br />
What?<br />
Ears!<br />
Listen up!<br />
Anger comes out as steam,<br />
insanity, as a ceaseless humming and buzzing<br />
beauty, as a symphony, which you write down<br />
(or maybe not, if you’re selfi sh)<br />
and they call you a composer<br />
fears and doubts as sarcastic, unkind little voices<br />
hopes and dreams as timid rainbows<br />
peace and contentment as sunshine<br />
suicide attempts, not as red, shiny blood<br />
but as a steady, empty vacuum<br />
capable of swallowing or creating entire universes.<br />
All these emotions drift around aimlessly<br />
then gather into one very strange ensemble.<br />
8<br />
9<br />
Amanda M. Fulmer<br />
Poetry<br />
and other ways of telling the world<br />
whatever damn thing you want to say<br />
is just letting the beans of knowledge spill over.<br />
They come out your ears!<br />
Naturally, they can’t come out the ears if there is<br />
ear wax in the mmgmmph… What?<br />
Ears!<br />
So, to write really good poetry<br />
fi rst, clean your ears<br />
then, listen to yourself<br />
your stomach growling<br />
your heart beating<br />
and all the people that you consist of<br />
talking, maybe even having a party in your brain<br />
and let whatever they have to say go fi rst<br />
into your ears<br />
and then out.<br />
Let your life blood come shooting out.<br />
Let your soul overfl ow.<br />
But don’t let your beautiful poem get earwax on it<br />
or people won’t be able to read it.
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