Photo by Saud Edum via Unsplash

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Today’s prompt asks us to “fill out, in five minutes or less, the following “Almanac Questionnaire.” Then, use your responses as to basis for a poem. Happy writing!

Almanac Questionnaire

Weather? Flora? Architecture? Customs? Mammals/reptiles/fish? Childhood dream? Found on the Street? Export? Graffiti? Lover? Conspiracy? Dress? Hometown memory? Notable person? Outside your window, you find? Today’s news headline? Scrap from a letter? Animal from a myth? Story read to children at night? You walk three minutes down an alley and you find? You walk to the border and hear? What you fear? Picture on your city’s postcard?” ~ NaPoWriMo, Day 26

I kind of went off the rails with this one… Not sure what else to say. It’s too long, but I can’t decide what to cut out yet. Also not sure about the form, but this will have to do for now.

PS–Most of the poems written this April will remain online for up to five days, after which they will be replaced by an excerpt, an erasure, or a thoroughly amateurish art piece that will only allow for bits of the original poem to peek through. At least, this is the plan. The reason being that, at some point, in the hopefully not too distant future, these drafts will undergo revision and begin their multiple-year pilgrimage through the slush piles of many a literary journal. So help me, O Muse.

PPS–Ah, to dream of lilac unicorns! The seashell angels tell me they exist. Which is why we replaced the original poem with this erasure. Well, that’s not the only reason for the replacement, but it’s a much better one. Four more days of tableaux! The seashell angels are so excited they’re going home, they started packing. So far, they have exactly two pairs of wings in their suitcases and nothing else. These are pretty small suitcases for some seriously ginormous wings.

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Poetry from the trenches, Day 26

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