Guest Post: My Prisoner, The Bug (a poem written by Rue Arrow)

butterfly on green background with black text

As a young writer, I receive emails from multiple other writers around my age. One of the young writers that I follow is Rue Arrow. I receive Rue's emails regularly, and when I have the time, I quite enjoy reading them.

Recently, Rue branched off from her more serious blog, This Messy Thing Called Life, and began a second one called Rue's Ramblings, where she, well, rambles. Rambles about life, spouts fun poetry, makes you think. She writes some pretty cool stuff.

One of my favourite things she has written is My Prisoner, The Bug. When Rue shared this neat poem on her second blog, I liked it right away. I liked it so much that I reached out and asked permission to repost it on my blog. Rue graciously replied with permission, which excited me very much. Today, I get to share Rue's poem with you!

Oh yes—do make sure to stick around all the way to the end of this post, so that you don't miss out on Rue's poetry or her little bio at the end!

Here is what Rue gave as a "preface" to her poem:

"Our minds are full of characters: curiosity, apathy, passion, fatigue. Just like every human personality has their flaws and beauties, so the characters in every human mind come with their troubles and their joys. It’s our responsibility to learn to know them, love them, tame them."

"It's our responsibility to learn to know them, love them, tame them." Taming one's mind can be a mighty task at times, but with the help of the Lord, we can learn to "take every thought captive." Rue captures a bit of this idea in her poem, My Prisoner, The Bug in a very whimsical lighthearted fashion. Still, she speaks great truth through her poetry. I shall bow out now, after I say one more thing:

Read this poem. Taste it. Savour it. Wonder at it. Laugh happy. Most of all, be encouraged.

Don't skim.

Love, Lily and Rue.

My Prisoner, The Bug

Written by Rue Arrow

There's a feisty, little firefly that lives inside my mind. He's jumpy and irrational, but always right on time. It takes just one wrong thing in life, To build up his chaotic strife. He senses it in all his bones, And goes insane as fury grows. Then he jumps and he flutters in a whirlwind of light. The static burns hotly and the buzz fills my mind. He flits back and forth, calling all of his friends; Till the madman of a bug turns into an army of them. And they eat up my being with their busy chaos, Filling my ears with tiny scream's of what's lost. And it's usually spurred by some small, silly thing. Like one plan that's changed or a song I can't sing. But this army of fireflies doesn't mean to do harm; They're sensitive to life so they're quick to alarm. I think that there's beauty to their sensitive minds. They bring excited flutters of joy when they see something bright, Timely shivers in the nightmarish hollows of night, And comp'ny in mourning when the world's lost its light. The issue is not really the bug in my head. It's the fact that, though it's my prisoner, I'm often its captive instead. So to teach my mind's prisoner to listen to me, I'm taking my firefly out for tea. And I'll learn his name and his thoughts and his needs. Then I'll promise to try my best to observe, All the things he finds necessary in this numb world. And in a quick game of wit that he didn't see coming, I'll win over my captive and he'll soon be succumbing. For where will he go with no-body to bother? And what would he do with no mind to awaken? What he doesn't know, though I know it well, I need my captive too, Because my heart is unwell. And I need my captive, this madman the bug, To teach me to see beauty and love its raw form, To show me the heartache and hurt the world's borne, To join me in triumph when vict'ries are won, To force me to cry when my heart is undone, To help me to see that the feelings do matter. They just need to be felt by a well controlled master.

Bio: Rue Arrow is a sojourning poet who loves plucking out tunes and rainy afternoons with Jesus. Her formal blog, This Messy Thing Called Life, is full of deep, thoughtful, soul-stirring writings and can be found at ruearrow.com. If you prefer random reflections and sporadic scribblings, check out her informal blog, Rue’s Ramblings, at ruearrow.substack.com.