They’ve each got a handful of hearts,
but so far, he’s only played a diamond,
and her knight has taken his castle.
He went shopping, and he bought
an apple, a balloon, and
a candelabra,
and she’s hiding under the stairs
hoping that he’ll find her soon,
but he can’t do anything
until the music stops,
and she’s staked her
favourite shoes, and
every book she’s ever read,
and that thing that happened
when she was 14,
that she’s never told anyone about,
and he’s raised her
three kids, and a labrador,
and a cottage in the country,
and she can’t find the piece
with his face on it,
and he’s thrown snake-eyes
six times in a row,
and if she gets one more spade
she can build a house on Mayfair,
and he’s already put down three layers
of Lego,
and she loves her love with an “A”
because he’s audacious,
and he’s hiding in the attic
by the water tank,
hoping that she’ll find him soon,
but she can’t do anything
until she’s memorised the contents
of his soul.
For NaPoWriMo Day 16 – a poem about play. This is the prompt:
We have a new craft resource for you today, or maybe an anti-craft resource, in the form of this essay by Michael Bazzett warning against the fetishization of craft. Thinking hard thoughts about word choice, line breaks, sound, and structure can help to make a poem better, but too much emphasis on perfection can breed stale, airless verse. There always has to be room for play, and not just work, in our poems.
In this vein, our (optional, as always) prompt for the day asks you to write a poem that prominently features the idea of play. It could be a poem about a sport or game, a poem about people who play (or are playing a game), or even a poem in the form of the rules for a sport or game that you’ve just made up (sort of like Calvinball).
Happy writing!
Sarah writes poems 