Heather Mitchell | + Follow Poet |
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Tast of Rejection

Liken rejection to the most revolting vile taste known to man. 
Remember back to childhood, your very least favorite dish,
Recall how anticipation of this food caused a queasy stomach,
You would have given anything to avoid the dreaded enemy.
Forced at long last to face the table you’d gather up courage,
Employed crafty strategies such as hiding morsels in a napkin,
Faking a sudden illness, or pocketing vulgar hand fulls unseen.
Finally coerced to swallow mouth full after sickening mouth full,
Quickly trying not to throw up hoping to endure your punishment.
So easy and obvious it is to draw a comparison now as an adult,
Always frantically running terrified from all forms of rejection, 
Choosing denial or simply turning off your emotional taste buds.
Everyone must weather this horrid gut-wrenching gull occasionally.

Curiosity presses me to ask what awful flavor is rebuff for you? 
Is it unbelievably sour like drinking fresh squeezed lemon juice,
Puckering your mouth, twisting up your face, causing watery eyes?
Maybe it’s unreasonably sweet bringing on instant dizzying nausea.
Does it catch in your throat like a partially chewed bite of meat,
Choking, gagging, suffocating causing discomfort and panic?
For some it might even be a spicy hot flaming irrupting volcano,
Burning all the way down, then smoldering painfully for days.
Could it be like eating salt turning your mouth into a desert,
Cracked lips a parched tongue desperately crave cold water?
Others find it as cooked okra unpleasant slimy and fowl,
Oozy squishy slippery goo repulsive difficult to swallow. 
With some foods it’s the texture or an unappealing smell,
Still more have memories attached very painful to tell. 
It is human nature to avoid foods we don’t care for,
As with rejection which most people strongly abhor.

Copyright © Heather Mitchell | Year Posted 2005

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