The Other Day I Thought About Slamming The Toastie Machine’s Lid Closed on my Hand While it was Still Hot

I really liked this. I feel you did a good job at not crossing the line of glorifying self harm and rather just really fleshed out (no pun intended) the idea of “curious masochism”. Reminds me of the “should I drive my car into the freeway wall” feeling. Like, yeah, duh, no, but...what if...? And I don’t know why but I love the curious cats and saturated fats rhythm. So nonchalant. The “need to explain” line feels like a walk up call shift in the poem. Good use of dark humor at the end.

This is amazing, great word choice and I relate to it 100% I absolutely love the “the only thing stopping me: the need to explain” and the fact that you didn’t make self harm seem like some sort of hero but showed it for what it is, One thing that I would add if it was me would be that I probably would’ve mentioned something about it’s addictive..ness..? Lol but really great poem

I also really like that you Call it a toasty machine,

I love the title, first of all, it's really attention grabbing. The rhyme scheme isn't my favourite but that might also just be me not being a fan of rhyme schemes generally. Theres this really quite clever ambiguity of whether or not it is simply "curious masochism" or if there is some genuine urge to self harm hidden behind it. The narrator seems perturbed and your punctuation really helped to portray this, thank you for sharing

I like this poem because it is a reminder that sometimes our curiosity can lead to do things that are “really, really dumb”. It also shows us that even though our curiosity can lead us to do dumb things, our conscience is strong and can help us prevent those things. Overall, it is a great reminder that we should not always follow our curiosity.

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I really love this one. The words you choose for the rhyme scheme are creative and the message of it speaks to everyone.

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I really love this poem that you made. Just want to let you know that. :)

Wow, I like this a lot. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?

Was your addition of "talk of dead cats" to juxtapose the main theme of masochism with the sadism we see expressed by others in their abuse of animals? In the overarching theme of harm I feel that it is relevant and jarring, but at that point were those thoughts a rational reminder of the consequences of your possible self-harm? (sorry if it doesn't make sense)

Also, I like your word choice through the poem especially "saturated fats" to rhyme with "cats". I personally felt it had a reductive effect on our feelings of self-importance; we are merely flesh and bone once others dismiss or disregard our sentience and cognition.

The last few stanzas also hint at the idea of pain to dull numbness in our being. Or at least that's what I think they mean?

Really liked it!

I absolutely adore this! a moment so relatable. humans arr funny creatures. i adore the personality and characterisation that shines through in this. the one part i struggled with was 'dead cats' i couldnr understand rhe reference if you dont mind please explaining. it felt like the only forced rhyme. well done! very impressive and i love this style.

Edit: i saw your comment about the cats and it is so so clever i adore this even more now!

I love the title here! I feel like this is something a lot of us can relate to, the whole idea of “curious masochism” is something I personally experience daily. I usually don’t like rhyming in poetry, but I think you executed it really well!

You have depicted the thoughts of self-harm very well. Why are so curious about such things least expected? And you've added humour to it. I guess some types of poems write you and not the other way around.

Excellent examination of how every day we flirt with danger. I like the themes but I think the poem needs more fine tuning; obviously masochism is a theme but I don’t think you need to explicitly use the word it stops the poem from flowing as nicely as id like it . Also the use of the word dumb cheapens the whole poem it’s kind of clunky . Also doesn’t need the ellipsis before saturated fats .

I like how each you portray the emotion and the sudden feeling of wanting that pain (although obviously please do not), it hit me deap inside of my soul.

I sincerely love this. I especially like how it reads. It puts me into the all too familiar mindset of being bored at work and losing myself in intrusive thoughts and morbid curiosity.

I'm also fond of the objectification of your body, as opposed to personifying the object. Can't really explain that one, just made me chuckle.

Personally, I'm not one for adhering to rhyme schemes (they just don't do a whole lot for me) but I think what you've done here with the second and fourth lines of every stanza is pretty subtle and produces a nice rhythm.

All said, I really really enjoyed this poem. I'm looking forward to the next one you submit!

I have to admit it took me a while to get into this, I started over a couple of times. Having said that having read it over again I really enjoyed the honesty of it. It raises the question of our instincts and how sometimes they can fail us. I didn't get any kind of impression that you would want to hurt yourself, it comes across as more of a curiosity of it. I also enjoyed the imagery with black metal of the toaster and the cheese and saturated fats, it gave it a little bit of gore without being too in your face. I really enjoyed it thanks for sharing. X