The May 30th prompt in The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice, by Kelli Russell Agodon & Martha Silano, is to write a couple of ten-line poems—one about a place you loved, and the other about a place you didn’t—and then combine them into a single twenty-line poem. I wrote about Tokyo (specifically, Saturdays in Tokyo), and getaways to Ocean Shores…

I used to live for Saturdays
                  (I used to hate the ocean
train rides into town
                  but off to the shores we went
making the rounds of the shops I loved
                  a cheap chalet by the beach
I could spend hours
                  a romantic getaway
immersing myself in the music
                  Something always seemed to go wrong
A chance to clear my head
                  her mood would turn without warning
leave my worries behind
                  and I’d have to apologize again
from station to station to station
                  I don’t miss the ocean
until I got home again
                  that much hasn’t changed
Suddenly, it all changed
                  Some things never change)  

(30 May 2014)