tara caribou
poetry & short story author – artist & nature lover
Silence Brings Calm
Keep your mouth shut, little bitch. Ain’t nothing you got to say that means nothing important. Get on your knees and scrub the floors clean, clean, ever clean. Every crack and crevice, nook and cranny need special attention. Your sharp eye and a toothbrush ought to do the trick.
Today. Silence surrounds. Schk-Schk-Schk. But even in silence there’s a rhythm that can’t be denied. You can’t pull yourself away from it. There. A speck you missed. Shut your fucking mouth and get to work.
It’s squalid, all so dirty. Rags tied to your knees. Fingers nearly bloody. Schk-Schk-Schk. Tears rolling down, splash onto cracked knuckles. Are your hands filthy too? Get up, worthless disgusting bitch. Wash and scrub the filth away. Best wash again just to be sure. “Perhaps….” No. Shut your mouth.
Silence. Overpowering all-consuming silence. How long would it take to count each grain in the wood flooring, I wonder? Drop to your knees. Pick a beautiful dark ring. Place a finger gingerly there. Follow it. Trace it. It’s curving path is without reason and yet somehow clean and perfect.
Deep sigh. Silence reigns but for the sshhh-whp, sshhhh-whp as your knees follow your clean fingertip. 72. 73…..74. Sshhh-whp, sshhh-whp. Sunset. You can nearly hear it as it drops below the horizon. Silence. ssshhh-whp. Don’t stop, little bitch. Tomorrow the sun will rise and shed light on the unwashed floor behind you.
tara caribou |©️2023
19 Comments on “Silence Brings Calm”
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tara caribou 
Intense is too mild a word for this. WOW!
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Thank you Bob. OCD can be a cruel mistress.
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Indeed, and unrelenting.
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Tara Caribou – Shut up and scrub, and never stop
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Well this slapped me around the face without warning Tara. An excellently piece, both disturbing and hard hitting…and far too close to reality to be comfortable.
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Hi Chris, thank you for reading. Yes, OCD can be difficult at times, that’s for sure.
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Well that’s one that I leant my own interpretation too. I can see it now from a different angle (clearly the one you intended). Self-abuse or abuse from outside – never healthy.
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Which is one of the things I love about poetry – the fact that it can elicit so many different emotions in different readers.
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I sure appreciate that, Chris. Especially because I respect you so much. I love poetry that can mean different things to different people.
It makes me think about how we all hear what we want to hear. Like six people can hear the same sentence and you’ll get six responses as to what was said. We listen (and see) through the lens of our individual perceptions and perspectives and experiences. Then interpret based on them.
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Wonderfully expressed, Tara, and you are very astute in the point that you make.
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Very powerful piece on domestic abuse that so many suffer even today. Harsh descriptions and visceral emotions that immerse the reader immediately. Very timely piece, Tara.
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Thank you for reading this, Tom. I sure appreciate that.
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Emotionally gripping, the shame forced upon her pyche. Intense writing.
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Thanks Cassa… OCD can be so cruel indeed. We are our own worst enemies at times.
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It’s an unwanted guest.
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Superbly evoked ✨🌹✍
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Thank you DA.
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Savage and visceral Tara.
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Thank you Andrea. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the savagery, just as long as we don’t dwell on it too long.
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