Poem 16
Little choc’late cat
Rests on our first joint purchase
A teal couch, dreaming
Of lands filled with boxes which
Brim with bobbles and play things
Hour 16 – I Paid $22 For A Burger Or In Which I Guess I Am Not Attractive
I Paid $22 For A Burger Or In Which I Guess I Am Not Attractive
after L. Hart
It is my firm belief
that if you do not think I am beautiful
you should not ask me on a date.
Dates are expensive.
And if you are not
Googly-eye incarnate
we are wasting our time here.
Okay, maybe that’s a lie.
At the very least,
if you are not taken by me
do not let me be the person you call.
Because you planned this.
This over-priced dinner date for two–
that I am collapsing into,
mutating into a fawn once more.
Stuck, or sticking in the molasses of your scorn.
As you smile,
say, “I’ve given up on beautiful women,”
say, “I’m so glad to be here with you.”
A clear line dividing.
As you smile,
say, “pretty women can’t hold a conversation,”
say, “see how easy it is to talk to one another?”
I tell you I am not a woman.
Somehow, it changes nothing.
You spin the word “stunning” in your mouth
and launch it at anything but me.
Reinforcing looks were the baseline you were evaluating.
Thank me for being
more “interesting” than anything else
and look at the women around the room.
Waiting for the next who, with hope, will not respond.
Hour 16-Punishment
Thank you all for coming
Today we will discuss the lack of talent
by some poets,
(specifically this writer.)
She believes, erroneously,
that poetry will change the world.
She never quite gives up,
despite all evidence to the contrary.
As we study this poet’s work,
we can see an unusual amount of triteness,
a lack of form,
a failure to submit to the attributes
long-held by generations
of those we call poets.
Yes audience.
I know, times have changed.
,The conventions of Whitman and Barrett-Browning,
of Frost and Dickenson are long gone.
The parameters of poetry have certainly
modernized.
However, this poet has far overstepped
even that basic framework.
We must fine this poet and those like her,
We must punish the audacity.
How dare anyone
abuse a sacred artform
like poetry.
For shame. For shame people!
Hour 16: Sorry but not sorry
Dear college counsellor mam
This letter is to inform you that I have failed all my tests yet again
I truly regret and repent
Promise to pass in the next semester
And O! I am sorry I have to beg to state that I am gay
I also beg to stress
That I am together with your son
Our days are rad and nights delicious
Do visit us in our pg sometime…
24 Hour Poetry Marathon Hour 16: Tribute to Wendie Donabie “Somnolent Wake”
Dawn so silent for me
in its magical overture
the first music to my ears
but my mind is often quelled
Late nights and old movies
and the tosses and turns of sleep
preparing me for a catch-up day
doom is often spelled
Those buzzing predators
I hear their complaints
for I offer not to feed them
with my morning’s somnolent wake
But they remind me
of the magic of sunrise
as I learn of the long dark shadows
and earlier walks by the dew drop lake
The light is strange and misty
clearing as the minutes turn
leaving Gothic town of my dreams
where the oldest memories burn
Another day has come
and a lesson I have learned
there enters within me a new encounter
and the love I am now to yearn
#14: W*rk
#14: W*rk
Work. Stressing about work. I don’t want to work. But I have no money without work. Which means I can’t buy anything without work. Growl. I guess I’ll go to work.
Midsummer Soliloquy
Where is the dusk song of the frogs?
They used to be so punctual, heralding the oncoming autumn.
The biting bugs have arrived en masse, but the evenings remain cricket-quiet.
Maybe it’s my own impatience,
but I’ve grown tired of the lonely heat.
(Hour 16)
Hour 16 – Dictionary Entry
Poetry Marathon
Definitions:
verb
- to create confidence
- to whisper creativity
- to meet and bless a worldwide poetry community
- to climb expectations
as in We’ve been Poetry Marathoning for 15 hours so far.
noun
1. a chapbook full of admirable achievements
Bring on the Poetry Marathon!
2. a day of hope in the life of a poet
It’s been a Poetry Marathon day.
3. a gift of love from Caitlin and Jacob
Thank you for that Poetry Marathon.
As Things Change
cw: references to metaphorical body horror
The gentle hands
(as the canary thought of them)
could not be around all the time.
It was sad, but the canary knew
that hands had things beyond
its four walls.
After all: the window
showed a whole world out there.
Still, when the gentle hands were gone,
sometimes cruel hands would come.
They would undo all the bandages,
and make the canary bleed,
trying to get it to sing
by causing it pain.
If the canary bit,
the hands would hurt it worse.
It was tired of having its heart eaten:
and so, it stayed quiet, yearning
for the gentle hands –
the only hands that never
turned on it.
Those same hands
took down the curtains:
now, they could never
block its view of the world outside.
Morning Rush-Hour Sixteen
Step 1: remember your shoes.
Step 2: Pat your pockets.
Step 3: Panic, as the wallet isn’t in that pocket.
Step 4: search the house for the damn wallet.
Step 5: find it in the purse.
Step 6: Look for your glasses.
Step 7: resume panicking.
Step 8:…Remember you can see.
If you make it to work without your wallet or purse, you may have to turn around! Repeat steps until completely ready.