Yesterday’s prompt in The Daily Poet, by Kelli Russell Agodon and Martha Silano marked the start of my second time around through the book.  The prompt called for looking up the names of racehorses, then using ten to fifteen of them in a poem that is not about racehorses. (For comparison, last year’s poem written from this prompt can be found here.)

The names I used this time around:

The Contessa
Waffle Stomper
Yorba Linda Trip
Heaven Forbid
Headwind
Aesthetic Ruin
Original Bloom
Questionable Behavior
Klaus Kinski
Nefarious Splendor
Green Eyed Larry
Brand New Larry
Before Coffee
Diamond Sky
Caffeine Serene
Existential Nudge
The Lunchroom
Defacto Princess
A Baby Maybe
Lollipop Flower

The Contessa wore her waffle stompers
on the Yorba Linda trip
unnecessary though they were
Heaven forbid she go anywhere without them
a sure path to aesthetic ruin

She was headstrong in the face of any headwind
as her family’s original bloom
her questionable behavior usually went unquestioned
Not even Klaus Kinski in all his nefarious splendor
could have made her change her mind

Green Eyed Larry had to just let the Contessa be
He was useless before coffee at The Lunchroom
to give him that existential nudge
After a cup he was caffeine serene
happy to let her play under the light of her diamond sky

Now the Contessa and Brand New Larry
live happily in their own little world
Some day a baby maybe
the de facto princess of the family
the Contessa’s little lollipop flower

(7 May 2015—posted May 8)