“Glum” © Thomas Riesner

 

Close Allies

Angry is close allies
with stubborn
though stubborn
has a slower burn.

Stubborn
is a decision.

Angry whispers in her ear, and stubborn
makes it an agenda,
then a manifesto.

Stubborn is the one
who had me finding a hiding place
deep in my body
where anger could wait it out,
a strategy that worked
until it didn’t.
(Once set free,
she wouldn’t go back in.)

Angry is always disappointing
to those who tell her,
it’s not what you said,
it’s the way you said it.
She knows that’s a lie
but can’t seem to find the words
for the truth.

Stubborn is what angry comes home to
when she realizes
she has no place to go.

Angry screws her courage
to the sticking place,
only to find it sliding down the wall
spent too quickly
and now, defenseless.
But stubborn never moves.

Angry terrifies people, but it’s stubborn
they should be afraid of.

Stubborn has always gotten things done.

 

Kathryn Stinson is a writer and psychotherapist in St. Louis, MO. She considers it a privilege to work with all kinds of self identified oddballs in her practice, where she specializes in Narrative Therapy. You can read more of her work at katstinson.com.

Thomas Riesner: “I was born in Leipzig,Germany in 1971 and I still live here today. Already in elementary school I often painted “abstract” instead of the given concrete drawing. I later retained this style or changed it to “abstract figuration ” I painted a lot at home, always without professional guidance. I didn’t have any specific role models. When I start a picture, I only have a certain idea, but often something completely different emerges. I would describe myself as an outsiderart artist.”