Welcome back, friends! My poem today is #82 in this year's Stafford Challenge (and #447, including the number of poems from last year's challenge).
Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “In your poem for today, use a simple phrase repeatedly, and then make statements that invert or contradict that phrase.”
Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, write a paranoid poem.”
I'm combining both prompts, as usual, in today's poem.
Paranoid
—curtal sonnet
They are after me. They are after me.
I can hardly walk down the street, today
or any day. That bird on the branch, there,
dogs me everywhere. They are after me.
That bird’s song is a report to them . . . “they.”
That girl across the street — don’t look at her! —
has got a gun. She just looks like she’s ten.
They are after me. You say, who are they?
Well, I don’t know. They have never shown their
faces. Maybe I’ve just imagined them.
No, they're everywhere.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Image by izafi on pixabay.com
Today, Alan is combining both prompts in a protest villanelle.
By Law, the Local Judge Candidates Cannot Proclaim
Party Affiliation, but This One Posted on Social Media
Images of His Attendance at a MAGA Prayer Breakfast
Sometimes, some evil folks are hurting you.
They may not know your name or what you are.
It’s not just paranoia when it’s true.
The ones who claim to love you through and through
can cut deep wounds inside that show no scar.
Sometimes, some evil folks are hurting you
in ways you can’t describe, when, from their view,
they’re cold and distant like the Northern Star.
It’s not just paranoia when it’s true
by your experience. What can you do
should you condense in pain while others stare
sometimes? Some evil folks are hurting you
for fun, you wingless fly, you legless cob, your new
and raw recovery from their unprovoked war.
It’s not just paranoia when it’s true
your neighbors helping them are monsters, too,
who “did not vote for this,” damned, unaware
sometimes some evil folks are hurting you.
It’s not just paranoia when it’s true.
—Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Another courageous poem, Alan. Bravo again!
Thanks for coming by. See you again tomorrow!
Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. Thanks!
Ingat, everyone. ヅ |
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