The Devil Finds Work for Idle Hands
Florence Major
There is a word for the preoccupied.
It takes you from the boundaries of control
and often, it takes a terrible toll.
It is a word that many can’t abide,
it means distraction, a letting life slide
off course, a threat to authorities’ role;
a challenge to what is the common goal―
It means disorder and that you deride
the powers that be. The word is dreamer--
You have gone where you cannot be followed
and for many this cannot be allowed.
A dreamer might prove to be a schemer--
One not afraid to leave a beaten path,
who thinks and moves alone might cause god’s wrath.
There is a word for the preoccupied.
It takes you from the boundaries of control
and often, it takes a terrible toll.
It is a word that many can’t abide,
it means distraction, a letting life slide
off course, a threat to authorities’ role;
a challenge to what is the common goal―
It means disorder and that you deride
the powers that be. The word is dreamer--
You have gone where you cannot be followed
and for many this cannot be allowed.
A dreamer might prove to be a schemer--
One not afraid to leave a beaten path,
who thinks and moves alone might cause god’s wrath.
Working notes
TRIVIA’S theme of (pre)occupation attracted me because of its ambiguous potentials for interpretation. In my work I often become (pre)occupied with the flip side of a subject. Still, in many cultures, societies, and religions from the most tribal to the most seemingly enlightened, woman’s place, role, purpose is to be a helpmate, pair of hands, fertile womb and know what place that particular ethos has for her. We still see girls deprived of the right to an education outside of home-crafts/motherhood and wifery. Daring to dream beyond this can lead to dire physical punishment. We have lately seen a Pakistani girl shot and almost killed for speaking up for a girl’s right to go to school. And still, many women live lives as chattel where to speak up in disagreement, is to then to be facially disfigured. Somewhere right now, a woman is living in fear of dreaming, of being preoccupied with hope or visualization of a life apart from one that is her social prison. There is still child marriage where a girl under fourteen years of age is married to a much older man against her will. To hope, to dream for many thousands of woman can be to invoke the wrath of the god and gods that rule her social place; we have read too many instances of dire consequences. (Pre) occupation can be a dangerous thing if it goes beyond being completely internalized for many women.
Here in the USA, it took immense political pressure to have the Violence Against Women Act renewed by Congress.
You see, in the above I became (pre)occupied with the subject . . . and just touched the tip of the iceberg. The devil is in the details.
Here in the USA, it took immense political pressure to have the Violence Against Women Act renewed by Congress.
You see, in the above I became (pre)occupied with the subject . . . and just touched the tip of the iceberg. The devil is in the details.
About the author
Florence Major is an artist/poet born in Montreal, Quebec, and living in New York City. She has poems in Chaffey Review, Cerise Press, Qarrtsiluni, Willows Wept Review, Moonshot Magazine, The Penwood Review, Anatomy & Etymology, Mythic Delirium, Illumen, Strange Horizons, Generations Literary Magazine, and other publications.