Day 9
She is a bear.
(meaning,
she is difficult to bear.)
At night
her screams break the sound barrier,
night terrors she calls them.
The acrid smell of burnt skin
sizzling blisters
prickly stubble–
lucid memories,
shadows behind
opaque panes.
Before the storm,
when the calico curtains
billow like parachutes,
she is a kitten.
In those moments,
we name her Honey.
Her blue lips curl.
A swirling lullaby, she
floats in like iridescent clouds,
“La Vie Est Belle.”
But
just as crows breathe
life into death
her skies darken.
Low thunder ushers in
a gothic drip.
Claws bared,
she rips cotton from walls
golden from mane.
The alarm warns:
Life isn’t forever.
Tomorrow is just a day from the past.
The bear exhales a grunt.
Human interaction is exhausting.
The aggression loosens
from her gaze, and
she retreats to bed.
This poem is primarily about mood swings. I channeled both my younger self and my daughter during her teenage years. Its origins are based on yet another NaPoWriMO prompt: “The Twenty Little Poetry Projects.” I loved the literary word play challenges, and I encourage you to give it a try.
1.Begin the poem with a metaphor.
2. Say something specific but utterly preposterous.
3. Use at least one image for each of the five senses, either in succession or scattered randomly throughout the poem.
4. Use one example of synesthesia (mixing the senses).
5. Use the proper name of a person and the proper name of a place.
6. Contradict something you said earlier in the poem.
7. Change direction or digress from the last thing you said.
8. Use a word (slang?) you’ve never seen in a poem.
9. Use an example of false cause-effect logic.
10. Use a piece of talk you’ve actually heard (preferably in dialect and/or which you don’t understand).
11. Create a metaphor using the following construction: “The (adjective) (concrete noun) of (abstract noun) . . .”
12. Use an image in such a way as to reverse its usual associative qualities.
13. Make the persona or character in the poem do something he or she could not do in “real life.”
14. Refer to yourself by nickname and in the third person.
15. Write in the future tense, such that part of the poem seems to be a prediction.
16. Modify a noun with an unlikely adjective.
17. Make a declarative assertion that sounds convincing but that finally makes no sense.
18. Use a phrase from a language other than English.
19. Make a non-human object say or do something human (personification).
20. Close the poem with a vivid image that makes no statement, but that “echoes” an image from earlier in the poem.
The challenge is to use all 20 in one poem. Have fun!
The Way I See It 
What a Herculian poetic task! You accomplish your goal with the usual panache. So much energy and emotion in this poem. I want to give it a try. It would be fun to see several of these poems lined up in a row. Perhaps a challenge for adventurous students?
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What a startling, strong, totally original poem! And I see why, reading that wild prompt. But through all this crazy suggestions I really did get the feeling and the message. What a great way to break free of our habits and create the unexpected.
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This.blew.my.mind. Thank you for sharing the challenge. I love this stanza-
“Before the storm,
when the calico curtains
billow like parachutes,
she is a kitten.”
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