Ask Us About Our Ninja Disguise

[Steven]

I love the naughtiness of 'Glory Days' and 'Freedoms'. I'm pretty sure the first one is your poem, for the humour and turns of phrase, 'sungoddess days'. I really like the end of that poem, it was very satisyfing for its honesty. I think the place is better established in 'Glory Days', but I also like the attention to details in 'Freedoms' and its surprise ending.

[Donner]

Thanks, Rob and Steven, for your thoughts.

(And Claire - I somehow missed your comment here. We're glad you liked the purse poems. Thank you, too.)

* * * * *


April 12 Prompt - When you see something you’ve never seen before

* * * * *

Images

We blame our eyes for seeing
things we’ve never seen before,
things we never wanted to see.
I saw my grandmother’s eyes
in their bluest beauty. I saw them lower
into her sockets as she slowed

and faded with age; her stories still
vivid enough to watch her mouth
structure the words that survived
a lifetime in our ears. I study her

face, the freckles she handed down
to my mother and me. Her eyelashes curved
to her glasses lens. Her treasured lips narrowed
with sutures I was never meant to see.

* * * * *

Do Over

I was startled when I looked down
from 30,000 feet and saw the Rockies
give way to plains and prairie.
They spread out, flat, from the foothills,
flatter from my view out the plane window
than I ever imagined the Continental Divide
from the pictures in my geography text.
When you see something you've never seen before,
it catches and holds you. You can only have
first times once -
.......the crowning of your first child;
.......that first sight of the St. Louis Arch
.......or Big Ben or the bluest blue of Crater Lake;
.......discovering your toes can reach your mouth
.......when you're 4 months old; that yellow paint
.......and blue paint mixed on your paper
.......magically make green; that even though your eyes
.......tell you both lemons and bananas are yellow,
.......your tongue tells you with one taste that one is sour
.......and one is sweet; that fingers
.......placed here, here and here on the strings
.......make a chord, that sex is a mystery
.......never solved. First times
are once only times
except, it seems, when it comes to love.
Lucky for me, when it came to you,
I got more than one first time.

[Sorella]

Hi Ninjas,
This last is one where you two are different in scope and take and style: one narrow in scope, sad in take, sparse in words and space, the other broad, happy and expansive. I love them both, and hate that I don't know Donna from Melanie.

Sorella

[Donner]

Thank ye kindly, Sorella. All will be revealed soon.

* * * * *

April 13 Prompt - Stopping her mouth with her hand

* * * * *

My Mother’s Antagonist

My sister’s black blouse,
stiffed with starch, sways on a hanger
over the doorknob back home.

She won’t wear it. She’ll wear the white.
No, she won’t. She will. She expresses her wishes
to be adopted by a mother
who lets her daughters wear whatever
they want, eat whatever they want,
come and go whenever they want.
When the word bitches slips
from under her tongue, my mother flips
around and stops that mouth with her hand.
She scowls my way with a bloody snarl, and cries
that the red has ruined her shirt.
My mother smiles and says to me,
she should have worn the black one.

* * * * *

Damburst

The first time
the words I love you
spilled out,
she stopped her mouth
with her hand,
the same way she'd done
when she spoke in tongues
the first time.
God said
she could take it back;
he said
she couldn't.

[Andrea345]

Amazing end to Damburst

[W.G.McLeod]

Stopping her mouth - Both are really good. My Mother’s Antagonist makes me want to suck in a hiss and Damburst makes me want to chortle it back out again.

[Donner]

Thanks, Andrea, from both of us.

And Wendy - you're as sneaky as a Ninja, posting while I was. HA!

* * * * *

April 14 Prompt - I lied to a nun today

* * * * *

Sometimes Omnipresence Wears Black

There's a lot of crossover
between the churches here -

bake sales, holiday bazaars,
dinners, Holy Week gatherings,

sacks left on front steps
for the annual food bank drive,

the competition for souls.
Everyone pitches in

for God's sake. Today, though,
I lied to the nun

who knocked on my door
to collect warm coats, fleece

alms, for the homeless. I said
sorry, I didn't have any

I could spare, not today,
but the truth is

I'm hoarding the extras
for my own church's

stockpile; if we amass the most,
the plaque is ours to display

for the year. Watching her
walk away, unsuspecting,

it felt like I'd lied to God Himself.
And I'm not even Catholic.

* * * * *

I Lied to a Nun Today

Yes, God, it’s true, I lied to Sister Ann.
It was about something I didn’t want
you to know, and you know
those nuns, they tell you everything.

She caned my palms and whacked
my knuckles, but I never gave up
the truth. I stood firm
in a corner for four hours, and mopped
the floor for another two. But, so help me you
I never told her what she wanted to know.

Honest to you, I never thought she’d go
so far as to involve the entire convent
(sorry about that) your ears must be numb.
Plus, they said I should pray
for hours on end and ask your forgiveness
until I’m ready to talk. So I’m hoping
it might put me in some good graces
to warn you that they’re going to try
to break me again tomorrow.

[Emilio]

Oh my, I love what you guys are doing here, and this

I thought of you over the dishes this morning
and suddenly missed you
like a girlfriend, not a wife.

and this

Fortunately she knew
the words to "Cornerstone"
by heart, the same way
she'd known her friend.

and this

The first time
the words I love you
spilled out,
she stopped her mouth
with her hand,
the same way she'd done
when she spoke in tongues
the first time.
God said
she could take it back;
he said
she couldn't.

Thank you,

[Donner]

Thanks, Emilio. Your stopping by and comments are much appreciated.

* * * * *

April 15 Prompt - I'd rather spend any extra cash in my pocket

* * * * *

Thrift, Stored

That cute shirt she's been waiting on
to go on sale is finally hanging
on the clearance rack. 40% off,
plus the $10 off coupon folded up in her purse,
means she can swing it for her sister-in-law's
birthday. They wear the same size, swap tops
and jeans all the time, so she smiles
as she lays it down on the counter,
knowing it will get an "Oooh, I love it!"
She'd rather spend any extra cash
in her pocket to treat a friend to lunch,
buy birdseed to fill her feeders or that t-shirt
her son has been wanting, or send $20
to the hurricane victims than spend it on a haircut
or manicure for herself. Emery boards
are cheap and she taught herself
to cut and color her hair in college.
Pizza with her friends always won out
and a starving child needs rice more
than she needs to be stylish. Besides,
she figures she'll have perfect hair
or at least it won't matter
once she hits the streets of gold.

* * * * *

Women and Shoes

I’d rather spend any extra cash
in my pockets on shoes. I tell my husband
who says that a hundred pair is enough.
I have to walk, I argue. You know I have to
walk from the time I wake until going to bed
for the rest of my life.

Any extra should be offered for tithes, he nods
as I shake. A month ago I saw the cutest slides
on sale at half price, but the extra cash was offered up.
Two weeks ago Macy’s had newly stocked sandals
at ten percent off. Last weekend
there was a buy blue and get red free at Shoebuy
and I had already chosen two favorite pair,
but instead, every extra cent went to the collection tray.

If you wonder why I have such a problem with that
then you should take note that every Sunday the preacher’s
wife is showing off the shoes that I didn’t buy.

[JFN]

Donna, Melanie, Donelanie, Meladonna, or whatever combination is most applicable.

The boy wears cool sunglasses has prompted two very different scenes (I suspect this will be a theme). Both are equally vivid, and very enjoyable reads.

From Where Faries Live this, "and never walking backward in front / of Mrs. Smith’s house three times while quacking." had me giggling. Compared to the bitter S3 of Wild Harvest. The last line of WH tells the story behind the story. Nicely done.

What I was saying... is a strong response to the prompt. Full of longing with a hint of confusion.

Glory Days makes for a nice piece of nostalgia, particularly the last few lines. I love the image of dancing in the hose spray in Freedoms. These both have excellent endings.

I love the idea of receiving a dozen single petal daisies. Now I guess the question is do you start with "he loves me" or with "he loves me not".

I like the list in One More, mostly for the ordering of the final prayer. S3 and 4 of Terminal I found particularly effective.

...Lake Wobegone is a great example of misplaced grandeur. I really liked the story behind this one.

Images is strong in vivid imagery, with the focus shifting to different facial features.

Damburst is one I can oddly relate to. I still feel very self-aware on the rare occasions I speak in tongues. Really like the last seven lines of My Mother's Antagonist

These last two both have their merits. Both end up in clothes shopping, which shouldn't surprise me.

You two are having a wonderful month.

John

[anenome]

A thread to come back to, there is much to read. My Mother's Antagonist is complex but closely observed, the clothes dilemma is easy to relate to but this goes way beyond, the mother's smile got me.

Damburst is strong in its examples of what slips out seemingly uncontrolled, I like the end thought that the 'he' here is more powerful than God,

i shall all be back!

[Janet]

So much to enjoy on this thread. I love the well-timed turns at the close of your poems. The hand covering mouth was a fantastic prompt and you both killed it. I also enjoyed extra money and lied to a nun. I particularly enjoy the writing precision you both have a knack for. Your well-thought prompts seem to be the right stones to step off of.

[Emily Bronte]

Donner, I've returned here several times and dipped in, intrigued by your idea of the prompts and a co-writer

I love how each of the pairs of poems end up playing off and informing each other. Very much looking forward to the second half of the month.

My favourite so far is the Old Feet prompt.

[Donner]

John, anemone, Janet and Emily - Thank you so much for reading and commenting.

(Donna, Melanie, Donelanie, Meladonna - HA! We're stealing that.)

John and Janet - We were having a wonderful month until today's not so well-thought-out prompt. Ack. But you go with what you've got, so here 'tis.

* * * * *

April 16 Prompt - Digging to China

* * * * *

Imagine

Imagination is the pilot of his rc plane. It’s not a hobby
for him, it’s a creation of worlds. He guides it to the airport
to pick up passengers traveling to Germany, then on
to Zimbabwe. to leave food for children he saw on television.
The plane has disappeared, but he continues to steer and lean
with the wind until it breaks through clouds, and lands
back at his feet. On one wing is a sticker that says, Guten Tag
and mazvita on the other. My husband and I stare in startled silence.

The next day I gave him a new pail and shovel and sent him to the sandbox
with the ruins of last week’s sandy city. At supper my husband asks
where his son is. I say that he’s in the sand digging to China. I saw the panic
freeze on my husband’s face as he rushed out to the sandbox
and I raced to the airport for the next flight to Beijing.

* * * * *

How War Is Waged

It starts with a polite request to please clean the garage,
she's tired of trying to find a hammer or screwdriver.
He eats another mouthful, that's his territory, after all,
and his prerogative to clean or not to clean, and he's tired of her
not putting borrowed tools back in their place. She would,
she glares, if they had a place. Speaking of things in their place,
she didn't hang my clean shirts in the closet, left them over the dryer,
but why should she? She's not his mother.

His mother. I don't want color scheme "suggestions"
for the living room or to be tsk-tsked over a few cobwebs or
given instructions on how she could better organize her kitchen -
my kitchen. At least she's never misplaced a serving bowl at Thanksgiving,
and then she opens her hutch and, digging to his mother's china, holds up
a hostage tea cup and saucer, then lets them fly. Her salvo
leaves his heritage clattered around the floor, and

he laughs and grabs the broom. I always thought eating turkey
off dainty pink roses didn't seem the manly thing to do, but this is:

after sweeping up the remnants, he sweeps her up and makes peace.

[Donner]

April 17 Prompt - People younger than me

* * * * *

Perspective

It catches me by surprise
how many people younger than me
like my next door neighbor
......whose heart gave out,
my friend's son
......who drove himself into a tree,
the new mother whose picture
......has peeled off the collection can
......at the diner,
famous people I've only read about
......online or in People,
their not so famous children
......and some who were more so
......who overdosed alone,
doctors,
football players,
CEO's,
names I recognize,
names I don't,
people born years after me
have already had their obits published.
Makes me wonder if reading mine
and how I went so relatively young
will catch me by surprise.

* * * * *

Brother

I loved you before you knew
how to love. I named you Blue
because that’s what you were
when I peeked in the crib to adore you.
I saved your life, unwitting.

Years later while teaching you
to swim at Bonny Pond, you ducked
under the rope float as I flirted
with the Walton twins. You swallowed
slow, and I pumped quick. Mom never knew.

I can’t save you from alcohol and drugs,
Blue. You’re younger than me,
why do you insist on dying first?
I don’t want to live without you,
but I don’t know how to die.