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# Milled
- URL: https://dianaludwick.com/milled/
- Published: 2026-07-07T12:37:41.000Z
- Updated: 2026-07-07T12:37:41.000Z
- Description: “Milled” an observation of force and mass on objects and living beings, written Tuesday, July 7, poem 188 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: "Dark Side of the Dough," by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.
- Author: Diana Ludwick
- Tags: 2026 Poetry Challenge, Poems, Airborne, Baked Goods, Boundaries, Bran, Bruises, Burrs, Calm, Commitments, Discarded, Existence, Freedom, July, Kernel, Millstone, Of Writing, On Making Space, Peace, Politeness, Relationships with Self, Rituals, Small Acts, Summer, Velveteen, #Migrated-1792872215677, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-10-24 20:03

In the past month,   
through a series   
of small burrs   
that grew into bruises  
and of small acts that   
spurred obligatory responses,  
I permitted my   
boundaries to blur  
my endurance to waver  
and my defenses to falter.  
Pressed flat, crushed  
beneath the mighty rollers  
ground down under   
the millstone of life,  
I let external noise and chaos  
bleed into the peripheries  
of my shaggy bran and  
pierce my exposed kernel.  
I went from whole grain   
to unenriched dust  
in the span of six weeks.  
And I allowed it  
through my politeness  
and wish for peace  
and hope for calm.  
While I have been   
rendered unrecognizable  
through the machinery  
of the times,  
left in a heap, discarded,  
I still have value,   
a second act in hand.  
Onward, forward, airborne:  
I will fly free as silken flour  
cloaking with newly found   
surface area  
flourishing in baked goods  
making sauces velveteen  
smoothing out the landing   
for those around me  
undergoing their own duels   
with the rolling pins of existence.