Prose Poems >

Ursa: An Introduction

I met Ursa in the dreamworld in the year 2000, and am still learning about ver. Is Ursa human, animal, or something else? Male, female, or other? I use gender neutral pronouns to honor Ursa's nature.

The following is an Ursa origin tale. Three versions of each prose poem are offered to you. One uses female pronouns to identify Ursa, one uses male pronouns, and one uses the gender neutral or transgender pronouns Ve (pronounced "vee"), Ver ("vur"), Vers ("vurz"), and Verself ("vurself").
Ursa and the Animals table of contents
Ursa and the Animals

Ursa Named Ursa

female symbol
Ursa named Ursa today. Ursa said “he” to Him, his name for himself. A butcher knife slipped between Ursa’s hemispheres and cut the corpus callosum.

Ursa said “she” to Her. The name was hers. A knitting needle snuck through Ursa’s forehead, right between the eyebrows, and punctured the pineal gland.

Eyes unfocused, Ursa breathed a vee sound. Mouth hanging open, Ursa felt a vur sound. Heartbeat slowing, Ursa heard vurz, and the word was vers.

She gave herself her name.

Ursa Named Ursa

gender neutral symbol and transgender symbol
Ursa named Ursa today. Ursa said “he” to Him, his name for himself. A butcher knife slipped between Ursa’s hemispheres and cut the corpus callosum.

Ursa said “she” to Her. The name was hers. A knitting needle snuck through Ursa’s forehead, right between the eyebrows, and punctured the pineal gland.

Eyes unfocused, Ursa breathed a vee sound. Mouth hanging open, Ursa felt a vur sound. Heartbeat slowing, Ursa heard vurz, and the word was vers.

Ve gave verself ver name.

Ursa Named Ursa

male symbol
Ursa named Ursa today. Ursa said “he” to Him, his name for himself. A butcher knife slipped between Ursa’s hemispheres and cut the corpus callosum.

Ursa said “she” to Her. The name was hers. A knitting needle snuck through Ursa’s forehead, right between the eyebrows, and punctured the pineal gland.

Eyes unfocused, Ursa breathed a vee sound. Mouth hanging open, Ursa felt a vur sound. Heartbeat slowing, Ursa heard vurz, and the word was vers.

He gave himself his name.
squiggle drawing
Afterword

We were words, and we were images, and we are them, and we'll be them. We are creative beings, being created. Hopefully we have a say in the creation, but even so, if we're honest, we know we don't get to have total creative control. I made a minimalistic prose poem novella featuring a dream character named Ursa, and sometimes someone (doubting my sincerity, no doubt) asks, "But who is Ursa, really?" Really, I don't know. Maybe the answer rests within this text message palindrome: Ursa is i, as r u.


Post your own dream-based poems on Friends of Ursa, the Facebook literary magazine.
posted 18 May 2011