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Downsizing

     10 years ago, the second Poet Laureate of Portsmouth, Robert Dunn, started the Portsmouth Poetry Hoot as a way to meet PPLP’s mission of building community through poetry.  And what a community it has built!  Audiences have grown from 1 dozen to 8 dozen and we’ve celebrated Hoot regulars reading and publishing around the Seacoast and beyond.  Robert Dunn left us physically on August 31, but his generous spirit lives on in everyone who knew him, and in all who gather at the Hoot.

     At the September Hoot, Tammi Truax read this poem during the open mic.  Her imagery, never quite letting us in on what (or who) is being “downsized”, is a wonderful mix of classic and modern allusions.  Not often you get Sisyphus and “The Donald” in one poem, but here it is used to great effect.  The poem’s simple form moves us from the beginning’s intention to the ending’s successful conclusion.  Whatever you are attacking during your fall cleaning, try this poem’s manifesto on for motivation.

  -- Lesley Kimball

Downsizing

I’m throwing them away

        casting them off,

one after another.

I’m Sisyphus, stepping aside

        letting rolling stones

go, gather moss.

I’m Hancock, whirling whales

        back out to sea

to swallow other Gepettos.

I’m the Donald, righteous

        and ridiculously coiffed

emphatically announcing…

“You’re fired.”  Your performance

        wasn’t up to standard.

Not even up to snuff.

So go,

        and be gone.

                             - Tammi Truax

"Downsizing” Copyright 2008 by Tammi Truax.  Tammi is a reader and writer of prose and poetry, and a columnist for SMG, currently completely immersed in a children's book that is nearing completion.

Please note: Poems submitted to this column should not exceed nineteen lines.