Down The Blame Drain
what I lead you to believe
isn’t necessarily true
you let yourself be lead on
now don’t get defensive
but it was your willingness
to fill in the blanks
with your own expectations
that resulted in this
misunderstanding
<>
I could have pointed that
but you were so sure of yourself
contradicting you
seemed pointless
you can’t blame me
for you making it so easy
to lead you on
<>
once I started
you made no pause for me to stop
you took the wrong hint
dashed on with it
before I could stop you
and when I did
you were dumbfounded
you thought I was joking
now you know I wasn’t
<>
so blame me
even if it wasn’t my fault
This is a variation on one of my frequent notions – how we use language to evade responsibility. ‘What did she expect, I’m a man.’ ‘There were unexpected casualties.’ ‘He was black – young – in drag – so I shot him.’ The sad thing about these evasions is how acceptable they are to many people.
I once read about a drunk driver, whose out-of-control car killed people on the sidewalk at around 11 p.m. – he said ‘they shouldn’t have been walking that late at night’ – he got off with a fine because the dead weren’t wearing bright enough clothes & had to bare some of the responsibility. All too often it seems that confessing replaces facing consequences, or facing consequences is seen as unfair & that a lack of forgiveness is spiteful.
This poem is about shifting responsibility in such a way one isn’t sure who is responsible. There is an undercurrent of a much used romcom trope of a mistaken identity that is allowed to go on until one of parties feels betrayed. ‘you only loved me because you thought I was rich’ – a mistake that could have cleared up with a simple statement like – I’m not who you think I am – but no it is allowed to go on & on. Or poor twin killing the rich one to assume that identity.
There is also a sense that the costume we wear is often mistaken for who we are, for what class we belong in. Dressing the part of say, a doctor, when one isn’t a doctor. Wear a white lab coat in any hospital & people will assume you are staff. Walk around a store with a clipboard & you can get away with merchandise. Look like you know what you are doing & people will assume you know what you are doing & that you have the right to do it 🙂
TOpoet 