Stuck

Stuck

It all happened so fast
I was too careless,
my heart full of glee
blindly rushing forward,
now I’m in too deep.

Struggling against its grip
I succumb to its judgement
and await my demise.

 Suffocation threatens
my last gasp

I push

I pull

I fight

It only strengthens the vice!
Panic leaks into my soul
Will I ever be free?

Wait–could it be?
a slight give?
a sweet release?
Could my soul bear to witness
a dream such as this?

It loosens
O joy! O happiness!
busting wide open like a wave on the sea!

One!

Final!

Tug!

–my jacket zipper breaks free!

57 thoughts on “Stuck

  1. Ha ha ha! I thought you were in quicksand and I was running toward you, throwing off my clothes, screaming “Hold on, Darla, I’ve got a rope!”. Good thing you had the skills to free yourself. Were you a Girl Scout?

      1. I had this happen in the dressing room just the other day. I went for the size 8 dress, and I KNOW I can’t fit into a size 8, and I ended up stuck in a little tube of fabric with both arms over my head, face buried, unable to get anything to grab hold of. I was terrified I was going to rip it and become the proud owner of a ripped, $200 tube of fabric that didn’t fit.

      2. Yes! The panic is incredible isn’t it? You think, which is worse, paying for a ripped dress or running out into the middle of the store for the jaws of life while flashing everyone in sight like a crazed lunatic?

        I was going through all of my winter clothes the other day, swapping them for summer and I tried on more than one garment that I promptly became stuck in. Needed the jaws of life to break free. And you’d think I’d donate these clothes, but no, instead I put them back and tell my husband I might fit into it again one day. Sheesh. I need to face facts here.

  2. singleworkingmomswm

    You had me going! Leave it to your blog, Darla, to remind me each and every time of my total naivety (and how amazing that is at my age with my life stats). LOL. This was pure awesomesauce.

  3. cooper

    as drowning is #1 on my all time fear/worst way to go list (long story) i found myself holding my breath through this. therefore it must be good….

    1. I would say getting stuck in my clothes is a huge panic moment for me. I only have two serious fears in life: spiders and claustrophobia. My fear of being closed in can make me hyperventilate. So if I’m ever stuck in a jacket and there’s a spider in there with me, I am as good as dead.

      1. cooper

        i had a lifeguard throw me in the deep end of a pool at the age of 3 to teach me to swim…he pulled me out…and then threw me in again…
        i didn’t truely learn to swim until I was about 14 years old….still not comfortable in the water even though I love being around it…

      2. Good lord, that is terrible! My younger brother had a near drowning incident when he was young and to this day he can’t go under water. I am sorry my poem brought those memories up for you. I wasn’t intending drowning as much as my panic at being stuck in my clothes.

      1. See, I wouldn’t even need to qualify the badness of my own poetry– it’s all terrible! My tag, if I were ever to post a poem on my site (don’t hold your breath), would just be “Poetry”. Putting the “bad” qualifier in front would suggest that I actually can write good poetry, too, which is so not the case. 😉

        1. I am so bad that I feel this suffocating feelign when I try to write poetry. It’s like torture for me. Like pulling off a band-aid, I just have to let ‘er rip. It’s way out of my comfort zone. I do have some more poems coming up tomorrow in my greeting card series. They are much better as I didn’t write them while half-asleep at 6 am like this one.

          1. Greeting card poems are way easier to do. There’s no pressure for them to be mind-boggling because they’re *supposed* to be entertaining (right?) As soon as I set about to write a “real” poem, though, all that comes out is terrible, angsty, 14-year old emo crap. 🙂

  4. Hi,
    Fantastic, I had no idea what was going to come at the end, but what a great ending, it certainly brought on a smile. I think it’s a brilliant poem. 😀

    1. Now that is something that would happen to me for sure. Your story was hysterical though, (mainly because it hasn’t happened to me…yet. I have broken my toe before, twice so we have that in common.)

    1. Thanks, Kathy! Good to see you here and I’m sure you’re still recovering from a whirlwind of a week! Congrats again on Freshly Pressed, I was excited to see you and Tori and Lisa up there all together in one post like that.

    1. I know. What is UP with me and jackets lately? My brain is mush, Elyse. Mush. I am writing too much lately. I had a dream last night I ran into some bloggers and we all went to London for the Olympics and Peg wanted me to enter the baton twirling competition wearing the jacket and the judge from Bulgaria gave me a zero.

  5. Deborah the Closet Monster

    I read through this and just knew there had to be a twist–but it turns out, no, there was a pull! Eventually. 😉

  6. HA! Best. Poem. Ever!! I was really, really hoping there was a punchline, and then I thought, “Well, this is a nice poem. Gawd Jules, not EVERYTHING has to be funny.”

    But I’m so glad it was! 🙂

  7. A few blogs I follow vent their emotional traumas, it feels better to get it out there. this spoke to me and thought about my own past experiences which I too luckily managed to break free of. It’s good to see we are not alone and can we can take support from each other. Mine was in the trouser department, I changed to button ups

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