This year I wrote a post in support of moustaches during Movember. As a result I was invited to join a team one of my salsa friends set up and helped raised money for the cause.
In a bid to be more creative with it I decided to write what I like to call a Mo Poem. There is a line for each dollar donated to my page ($60 in total), and I’ve included words that the donors requested (listed below).
I’ve never written anything like this before, but there’s a real story here and I am very glad I had the opportunity to support something I believe in and to get support from others. This is something from the heart, and it’s a thank you to those that were involved in Movember 2012.
–
He spent his time blocking the fears
His focus fixed on positives
To the point that no one knew
He’d ever shed so many tears.
The changes that he saw, he hid,
Ignoring all the pain
Burying the strangeness
In distractions
Til it grew too much to bear.
The doctor saw that he was scared,
That the tests left him
Alone, discombobulated
By facts and figures, clinical
Like stats that shouldn’t have an impact
On an individual.
But there was nothing left to do
And he thought no one related.
“At this stage of the game,
Even the wisest soothsayer
Couldn’t tell me how to be
Or what to change,”
His mind would cynically say.
So he carried all the weight
Like a hunch upon his shoulders
Invisible, it was as if
He walked through life
Now chained to boulders.
Everything he’d cared about
Now felt only peripheral:
Instead of being in each moment
He was in the outer circle.
With the personal change
All bottled up and pushed away
His disposition became
Epicyclic, moving around
What he didn’t say.
The worst part was he knew
He could carry on
For years in this way.
But as Fortune or Fate
Or any other force would have it
That was not the case for long
They knew something had to give.
It came in the form of some blokes
At a local Melbourne bar
Making a few little jokes
About mens health and mos.
They laid foundations around the world
So every year people would grow
Something not quite a beard
That many thought would scare off girls.
Then the floodgates broke
And this guy (the story’s hero)?
He finally found hope.
He opened up to his friends
Got their support and realised
He had support and understanding.
And when things got better
He knew he’d always remember
The meaning and the heart behind what we call Movember.
–
Words requested: Discombobulated, soothsayer, epicyclic.
I’ve used them with some creative license, but I think the result is that they help tell the story in a really nice way.
Filed under: Poetry Tagged: mens health, Moustaches, Movember, poetry
