Today’s prompt was to write a poem that plays with the idea of a list. The example poem was a list that isn’t – it never gets beyond the first entry. I somehow mangled this with a challenge from a couple of days earlier write a poem in which laughter comes at what might otherwise seem an inappropriate moment – or one that the poem invites the reader to think of as inappropriate.
Just for today (given I don’t think it fits tonally with the other poems I’ve written) I’m including the whole thing.
*****
The Tartatus List
trying to prepare
for my assault on Hades
torches to scare away
the damned darkness ;
my life-restoring lute ;
an obol for the ferryman ;
three bones for the guard dog
in case Herakles’ trick
doesn’t work a second time
— but it’s impossible
to focus
given all i hear
is my mother’s
voice
carping on at me to
pack
my cape cos
she’s certain it will be
COLD! down. there…
& she knows what
i’m like … when the
weather
turns
chilly
Day 7 – TIL something strange about a lollipop
sweet stuck on a stick
Chupa Chups are Spanish
(the name means something
close to Sucky Sucks)
& were designed so they didn’t
melt in Iberian summer heat.
They originally cost
a single peseta each.
But none of these
are the poetic factoid
that blew me away.
Their logo of brand
name inside brightly
coloured daisy
was designed by
— Salvador freaking Dalí
Aside: he also once sent Harpo
Marx a supremely surreal Xmas gift
— a harp with barbed-wire strings
gareth roi poet boi 