I Need an Army Of Me

It’s Labor Day in the U.S. today, and so, I offer you a poem and a writing prompt about work — creative, paid, unpaid, hard, easy, etc. This is also the first installment in a series I’ll present on what I call, la vie midi, AKA middle-age.

Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

Remember that Bjork song — “Army of Me”? In the music video, young Bjork is madly driving a mega metal truck through the night, à la Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin. She can fly like a witch and has a snake body below the waist. We keep seeing her metal teeth. Then she goes to a gorilla dentist and blows up a modern art museum. Björk is angry and raging the whole time. The same lyrics repeat and repeat: “If you complain once more, you’ll meet an army of me.”

Ai art I made on art breeder from the prompt “Björk with a snake body.”

The song feels truer than ever in my middle age.

Is there a disorder where you want to do everything yourself? Learn everything? Be everything?

I Need an Army of Me.

I need an army of me to clean the house, to do the laundry, to categorize the pantry.

I need an army of me to homeschool my daughter in every subject she will ever need.

I need an army of me to grow my own food, free from pesticides and whatever else will give me cancer.

I need an army of me to plant flowers, brush the pets, drain the air conditioner, unclog the toilets.

I need an army of me to study nutrition, to cook my homegrown food, to purify my water.

I need an army of me to kiss me, to rub me, to squeeze my sore feet.

I need an army of me to be all my doctors, to research each new ailment and weird knot in my body.

I need an army of me to mend my clothes, to sew new things, to take me shopping.

I need an army of me to handle all my finances, call the bank, make the trades.

I need an army of me to look beautiful, do my nails, curl my bangs.

I need an army of me to post on social media, to read emails, to plan things.

I need an army of me.

Now You

How do you feel about an army of you? What would you use your army for?

Or, take this poem and use it as a writing prompt:

“I need an army of me…”

Share your poem or thoughts in the comments.