WANT NOTHING

Two weeks ago,
on an anxious return trip
from visiting foreign strands
(my living room carpet),
a cricket leaped onto the screen
of the French doors leading to dirt
and home.

Stiff now
and dry like weathered paper,
the cricket still fixes to the grid,
clinging to the mesh,
in crinkled desperation–

eyesore to the housekeeper
who, nevertheless,
lets it be,
a meditation each morning
on his own mortal instinct
to want.

Mr. Ken Sarkis, Drama Instructor and Poet

 

 
About this poem: Mr Sarkis shared his story about this poem with us:
“Ms Zachik regularly sends me wonderful creative-writing prompts.
About two months ago, she shared one that challenged me to look around
my house and find an object to contemplate and then to respond by
writing.

For months I had been looking at a dead cricket clinging to the
screen in my living room. It wanted to get outside, so it jumped on
the screen thinking that would lead to his getting ‘home’ to his
natural habitat. It died, stuck to the screen.

I sat on the sofa with a cup of coffee and thought about the
significance of it.

I thought: that little creature wanted something so desperately, it
actually died. I wondered if some of my desires, my wants, are so
strong they make me immobile, stuck, even lifeless.

I decided, instead of cleaning the screen and disposing of the
cricket, I should leave it there as a lesson. It is still there as a
reminder NOT to let my wants get in the way of my living.

I hope anyone who reads the poem will think about that.”

–Interview and editing done by Gaven Li