Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Poem Starting with a Line from Norman Dubie

My favorite pastime has become the imaginary destruction of flowers.
It comes standard with my evil twin.
I take their pictures and learn their names.
I consult guides in order to know where they like to grow.
I drool over plant catalogs and linger in nurseries,
wishing I had the space and means to buy them all.
Little do they know what I have in store for them in my mind.
Sure, I'll plant them up all neat and pretty,
spacing them in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
All the while planning how I'll painfully pluck each and every petal,
how I'll singe the roots of some and drown the roots of others.
I'll chop the tops clean off of the showiest blooms
just as they are reaching the height of beauty.
A riot of color will go up in flames,
nothing left but acrid black smoke,
no trace remaining of their original perfume.
I will count on that perfume, though,
to bring me back from the clouds, feet on the ground.
Enjoying the glorious living creatures about which
I have these very inappropriate daydreams.



Today's NaPoWriMo prompt was to use a line from a Norman Dubie poem to begin a poem of our own. This turned out to be quite an interesting exercise. For those of you who read yesterday's happy floral-themed poem, this is quite a departure from that!



Day 13

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