A daily reading from One Poem Only—a quiet space for a single poem, read aloud.

Disjointed Conversations

Jean Wathugu

Because I saw that obligatory smile

I am dismembering the foot in my mouth

Your eyes like to wander in the middle of my lame anecdote

So here’s my prosthetic humour

So I can fake it enough to make it

How about you write me a technical manual on how to be

So in between the jargon I can mourn the parts of me that don't fit in

You took me in before

Spitting me out

I’m a mishmash of mismatched ingredients

Preheating the oven to bake foreign philosophies into my own

I hoped you'd see me but I guess now I'm in between

Crystal glasses of wine

So I can see through this

Dismembering of the foot in my mouth

The burning off of offensive quirks

The flogging of my delinquent idiosyncrasies

The branding of new philosophies

My drunk mind was always more imaginative. So I'm drinking 4% beer

Dreaming up a version of reality

Where your attention doesn't wander off-

In the middle of my syllables

The only visions that matter are the ones you have of me

In the right lens. Did you get my good side?

I am dreaming up a version of reality

Where I am solid enough to be elusive

And you don't have to see through me and my bullshit

I am mourning the parts of me that don't fit in - do you get it?

More from Jean Wathugu ↓

• @jean.wathugu on Instagram
• @jean.archived on Substack

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