Poets is powered by Vocal.
Vocal is a platform that provides storytelling tools and engaged communities for writers, musicians, filmmakers, podcasters, and other creators to get discovered and fund their creativity.
How does Vocal work?
Creators share their stories on Vocal’s communities. In return, creators earn money when they are tipped and when their stories are read.
How do I join Vocal?
Vocal welcomes creators of all shapes and sizes. Join for free and start creating.
To learn more about Vocal, visit our resources.
Show lessInvisible Strings
Answers and Dancers
Watching invisible strings
controlling very visible things
It has them dancing
It has them diverting
It has them hurting
I can’t cut them for them
and so they have me hurting too
while I play pretend.
I’ll dance around
for a single song
but I can’t dance for two
without feeling wrong
Why my eyes see
what makes it be
isn’t a mystery to me
But the answers
don’t stop the dancers
They pirouette
they shimmy and shake
their tail feathers flapping
to the tilts of the strings that take.
Maybe it’s best they have something toting them along,
I can’t say I know what they’d be doing
without those strings leading them on.
The threads that pull my head
got me out of bed,
and I saw my trail,
so I cut them off
so I wouldn’t fail,
but they taught me how to see,
and I have the heart to make me, me.
I don’t mind taking a leash
and wrapping it around my neck
and pulling myself
out of any wreck.
I gotta keep yanking
and though my throat is full of rash
the callouses keep me focused
on what the challenge is.
I’d never want my collar
controlled by an owner
I didn’t know,
I wouldn’t trust them
to make me grow.
So the woe of the puppets
pulled by invisible strings,
is a woe for me
but for them
a future it brings.
I must say their master
knows not too well
how to avoid disaster.
The reigns would be better off
in the hands
of better brains,
but for now as a visible
that’s something I can change.
I’ll tell those string holders now,
when I leave this ground
and get back into the invisible
I’m going to make them miserable.
Slap the piss out of their bladder,
tie reigns to their neck
and climb up the ladder.
I'll pull those pulling them
and make a better world
for us in the end.
For now though I'm here
and have a form
that does show,
so I’ll run the loop
free from the chain,
and see what I can change.
Anything I fix
will be
but a blip in this mix,
because I’m taking with me
the skull notes I’ve been jotting
and when my hearts decides its stopping,
I’m hopping on a train
straight to the chains.
I’ll have their grips
in my invisible fingertips
and trail those frail string pullers
into a world that’s much fuller.
Enough though of the esoteric jabber
about a mystical invisible ladder.
Let’s dance while I’m here,
and I'll shake as best as I can
all while pretending
that I don’t understand.