Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo suggestion: “And now for our (optional) prompt, once more taken from our archives! Have you ever heard someone wonder what future archaeologists, whether human or from alien civilization, will make of us? Today, I’d like to challenge you to answer that question in poetic form, exploring a particular object or place from the point of view of some far-off, future scientist? The object or site of study could be anything from a 'World’s Best Grandpa' coffee mug to a Pizza Hut, from a Pokemon poster to a cellphone.”
Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: “For today's prompt, write an animal poem. If you want, make the title of your poem an animal and write your poem. Or perhaps, you could give an animal a cameo somewhere in your poem. Another option is to write a persona poem from the perspective of animal. And I'm sure there are many other options available.”
Alan's poem today has an interesting take on the future archaeologist theme. Also, can you find the animal?
Excavating My Old Room
I have no time to imagine how
it might happen that my boyhood
bedroom back in Alabama,
its windows facing south,
would somehow remain intact
like a pharoah’s tomb
so a future dig would unearth
a wooden cigar box
that in second grade
I lined with green felt
because my teacher knew that all
students would want a box
to keep small treasures in.
She went to the King Edward
Cigar plant, close to the King Pharr
Canning Company, and got enough
wooden boxes, each secured shut
by a moving iron band,
so our class could all have
a place to keep our small things.
Should they find that box, I am not
sure if any trading cards will still be
in it, odd ones from different series,
the rubber band likely dissolved
ages ago. I think a wallet-sized portrait
of Christana Ellison will be in it,
her translucent blue eyeglass frames
the same color as her picture day dress.
There may be an I.D. bracelet,
and maybe a small plastic set of Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs I got by mail order
for fifty cents and some proofs of purchase
of Royal Pudding, the paint chipping off
even when they arrived. And there should be
a set of painted wooden penguins
that nest inside each other like Russian dolls,
the kinds of things children keep
before people make them embarrassed
for having them and then later keep secret.
—Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Okay, for my poem . . . time for a little slapstick. Merging both prompts as usual.
T.Rex, Says the Future Archaeologist
So, I’m inspecting a video image from
a thousand years ago, from old North Am:
a T.Rex wearing a bright red and blue suit
looking like, if I’m right, old Spider-Man.
Such huge unreal dinosaurs were Gods.
The inhabitants of North Am worshipped
at their feet. And this particular T.Rex
could shoot sticky unbreakable webs
from his wrists, from those tiny forearms,
and swing freely from building to building,
brachiating like an emperor chimpanzee.
Spider-T.Rex: epitome of spirit and grace.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Click on this image to see it larger.
Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks!
Ingat, everyone. ヅ |
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1 comment:
OMG, how cool is a T. Rex/Spiderman mashup? Fun poem, Vince - evokes the sometimes off-base conclusions that we often make about our past. And the image of a T Rex swinging from building to building is more hilarious than scarY!
Alan, great nostalgia piece. Reminds me of a poem I once wrote about going throough a crate of old LPs and finding an album by a band my old grilfriend and I saw at Fillmore East back in the Stoned Age.
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