Hello again, friends! My poem today is #83 in this year's Stafford Challenge (and #448, including last year's poem count).
Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: “Today, try writing [a] poem in the voice of an animal or plant, or a poem that describes a specific animal or plant with references to historical events or scientific facts.”
Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day suggestion: “For today's prompt, write a '_____ But _____' poem.”
I'm combining both prompts, as usual, in today's poem. My speaker is a Marvel alien who is arguably an animal AND a plant. You can see Groot in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies.
Groot, But Groot
I am Groot.
If you can’t understand, this says
I am an extraterrestrial alien.
I look like a tree. I saved a human
from my peers and was exiled
from Planet X to wander the galaxy.
I am Groot.
This says, I’m a Flora collosus.
I cannot die as long as even a twig
of me remains, because
I can regenerate.
I am Groot.
I am saying I have a best friend,
Rocket Raccoon. We are on a team,
the Guardians, with Star-Lord,
green-skinned Gamora, Drax
the Destroyer, and telepathic Mantis.
I love them. We love each other.
I am Groot.
This says, I am Groot.
—Draft by Vince Gotera [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Art by Flaviano Armentaro (Wikipedia)
Today, Alan is combining both prompts as a well in a plaintive call for truth-seeing.
Not Bug But Function
“[S]ome worms induce crickets and other terrestrial insects
to commit suicide in water, enabling the exit of the parasite
into an aquatic environment favorable to its reproduction.”
Libersat, Frederic, et al. “Mind Control: How Parasites
Manipulate Cognitive Functions in Their Insect Hosts.”
Frontiers in Psychology vol. 9 572. 1 May. 2018,
doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00572
(https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5938628/).
Not ally but deceiver,
not enabler but manipulator,
not dealmaker,
not liberator,
not savior,
not leader,
not king.
Oh, would some power the gift give us
to see ourselves as the world sees us,
to turn from those who’ve highjacked Jesus,
poor foolish nation,
and earn trust back; its loss bereaves us,
the world’s devastation!
—Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.]
Alan, I love how your epigraph is just about longer than the poem itself! Beautifully done.
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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3 comments:
Vince, I like your tribute to Groot, and Alan's metaphor is chilling but on the money.
Oops, I went "anonymous" again. P.S. Maybe there's a universe where Groot and Rocky could meet. Wouldn't that be interesting!
I thought Vince would catch the Robert Burns allusion. Now he'll have to look it up!
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