And so it comes back around… The July 19th prompt in The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice, by Kelli Russell Agodon & Martha Silano, is to “write your own list poem using ‘because’ as your refrain word.” (Their main point of reference is Juan Felipe Herrera’s ‘187 Reasons Mexicanos Can’t Cross The Border’ poem.) As usual, I picked a tricky one to do…

Because you don’t know how I feel

Because I haven’t told you

Because I assume you wouldn’t be interested

Because I don’t think I’m good enough for you

Because I’m not where I think I should be

Because it feels so hard to get what I want

Because I’m not like everyone else

Because I’m not outgoing or ambitious

Because I’m not interested in playing the game

Because I don’t want to be turned away

Because I don’t want to be alone

(19 July 2015)