alee_grrl: Open book with purple iris in crease, text reads poetry (poetry)
Manda ([personal profile] alee_grrl) wrote2012-07-28 02:39 pm

Poem: Tag

Not sure quite yet what I think of this one. It may get some more tweaking later. As always concrit is welcome and appreciated.

Tag

meta-tagging seems so new
but we've been doing it for millennia
objects around us collecting
associations, walls absorbing memories

virtual tags are easier perhaps
for organizing, for understanding
analog tags are unseen but felt
a mystery to be explored

you feel these tags in the well worn
lines of a bed frame that's borne
three generations, love and warmth
illness, nightmares and comfort

You see them in the strange quirks
of old houses, the choices made
remnants of lives lived, haunting
intangible memories--if these walls could talk

I've seen them in a friend's room
in her parents' house, such a shrine
to her life: childhood, teen, adult-everything
tagged by emotion, memory, dream

It is strange what we choose to tag and carry
what makes it through our adventures with us
For me it is a small collection of oddities
a few bits of art, a smallish book collection

photos, trinkets, magnets, bookmarks
old friends full of memories and dreams
These are the bits that mean something to me
these are the bits that are tagged to hell and back

#need a laugh?, #omg-remember when?,
#dumbass attacks happen to everyone
#family is more than blood, #you are loved
ethereal tags fill the space in a home

they give weight and substance to a home,
provide it character, make memories
a little easier to find. You know your own
but must guess at others'.

Felt but not known. You can guess,
speculate, wonder, or, if you are lucky
take a chance and ask questions.
Maybe they'll share their tags with you.

Some day our inquiries might not
be needed; we'll add digital tags
to the analog world and glasses
or phones will let us read them.

It's already happening, fledgling tech exists
but sometimes it's more fun
to "read" the analog and use that
to start a conversation.