Poem: "Emodox"
Jun. 6th, 2025 08:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the June 3, 2025 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by the "unlabeled" square in my 6-2-25 card for the Pride Fest Bingo. It has been sponsored by janetmiles. This poem belongs to the series A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows.
"Emodox"
someone whose mood is perpetually out of synch
with everyone else around them, prone to
feelings of naptime panic, hear-to-heart snark,
or dance club pensiveness
Most people
feel the same things
at the same time.
They are happy
at a party and
sad at a funeral.
They stand on
common ground.
If you're different,
though, if you
dance to the beat
of a different drum,
then they will never
let you forget it.
They will always
remind you that
you are different,
out of step, perhaps
something other and
unlabeled, certainly
not one of the gang.
Every time you cry at
a party because people
are crushing the grass,
or laugh at a funeral
because the deceased
is mooning his boss,
they will remind you
that you are out of step,
admonish you to lie
with your face.
You may wonder
what is wrong with you,
why you are different,
why you never fit in,
why everyone resents you
for not being what they want.
You may not understand it
yourself, you may struggle
to embrace your own identity
until you read a fairytale
and finally realize that
you are not unlabeled,
not out of step at all --
you are just fey.
* * *
Notes:
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, p. 46. Simon & Schuster, 2021.
This comes after "Liberosis."
If you look at fairytales, you will notice that the fey show many traits of neurodiverse people as well as having physical differences. Among the more common examples feeling different emotions than the humans around them, often because their fey nature perceives different things in the event.
janetmiles. This poem belongs to the series A Poesy of Obscure Sorrows."Emodox"
someone whose mood is perpetually out of synch
with everyone else around them, prone to
feelings of naptime panic, hear-to-heart snark,
or dance club pensiveness
Most people
feel the same things
at the same time.
They are happy
at a party and
sad at a funeral.
They stand on
common ground.
If you're different,
though, if you
dance to the beat
of a different drum,
then they will never
let you forget it.
They will always
remind you that
you are different,
out of step, perhaps
something other and
unlabeled, certainly
not one of the gang.
Every time you cry at
a party because people
are crushing the grass,
or laugh at a funeral
because the deceased
is mooning his boss,
they will remind you
that you are out of step,
admonish you to lie
with your face.
You may wonder
what is wrong with you,
why you are different,
why you never fit in,
why everyone resents you
for not being what they want.
You may not understand it
yourself, you may struggle
to embrace your own identity
until you read a fairytale
and finally realize that
you are not unlabeled,
not out of step at all --
you are just fey.
* * *
Notes:
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig, p. 46. Simon & Schuster, 2021.
This comes after "Liberosis."
If you look at fairytales, you will notice that the fey show many traits of neurodiverse people as well as having physical differences. Among the more common examples feeling different emotions than the humans around them, often because their fey nature perceives different things in the event.
