Like some of my other writer friends, I’ve been mostly keeping up with the April 2010 Poem-A-Day Challenge, a feature of Robert Lee Brewer’s Poetic Asides blog. Every day throughout the month, Brewer offers a writing prompt, an idea designed to spur creativity.
I’m not going to post all the drafts I’ve generated over the past seven days, but I’ll post today’s. The assignment today was to “take the phrase ‘Until (blank),’ replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and write the poem.”
So here’s my poem. Comments are welcome.
Day 7: Until the Day
(Inspired by, and dedicated to, Constance McMillan)
Until the day
the two girls in tuxedos
the boy in the boa
the girl who still loves Clifford
the boy whose laughter leaks a glittering thread to the towel tucked in his collar
the girl who writes fairytales with smart sarcastic animals
the boy who envies the girls their brash reds purples pinks
the girl who dances badly and so joyfully
the boy who was a girl and the boy who will become a woman
can all strut into flower-festooned gyms
smile for years remembering this night
see their truest selves in yearbooks
Until that day
we will all carry a sour burden of shame
heavy well water logging our crops’ roots