I will not stand

I will not stand before you
I do not stand
I am bound to this chair, by the unseen wires
of pain, weak muscles, and spasms

I will not recite

I will not stand before you and recite
I do not recite
My memory is too full of  blanks, 
my brain too full of holes

I will not be loud

I will not stand before you and loudly recite
You can be loud, 
You can be proud, 
You can stand and rant, 
loudly proclaim, declaim, gesticulate
I'd just fall over, drop my sticks, forget my words

I will not wear tweed

I will not stand before you and loudly recite, whilst wearing tweed
I quite like tweed, the smell, the feel
I never wear it though, 
It's never easy-on, easy-off, easy-wash, quick-dry
It doesn't meet my needs
It doesn't suit the needs of the temperamentally incontinent

And neither does your slam, 
your daises, your podiums, 
your two steps up and your two steps down,
your loud insistence on the spoken 
on the best way to be a poet

So I'll sit and not stand
I'll read, not recite
and I'll not be loud

Author's Notes
1. 'I Won't Stand For This' will appear in the anthology MS: My Story

Copyright © 2015 Lindsay Oliver