My day 19 poem for National Poetry Writing Month uses the prompt from Napowrimo.net—to write ‘a poem that recounts a creation myth.’
The day I snagged a small slice of freedom
I never knew it had a name
I’d been doing it for years
I was at a gathering
I don’t remember
where or when
I was alone
everyone else
was talking
to everyone else
Then it hit me:
I could just leave
I could get my jacket
and walk out that door
without saying a thing—
no goodbyes
no awkward excuses—
just go
So I did
Nobody noticed
Nobody called after me
or said anything the next day
as if I hadn’t been there
I learned later
they call it an Irish exit*
* — I learned this from Mindy Kaling’s first book, Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns)
(18 April 2017—posted April 19th ET)
Ordinary Average Thoughts 
It wasn’t until my middle years that I learned how freeing an Irish exit can be. I spent way too much time worrying about what other people think.
Same goes for the phone or the door. Once I realized I did not have to answer either one if I didn’t want to…
I could feel my excitement about the oncoming freedom grow the further I got into the poem, you captured that feeling/the process really well!
That’s well written! We should actually do it sometimes where our presence or absence really doesn’t matter 🙂
Well written indeed. I wrote “Looking In” ages ago, about my own Irish Exit from an overwhelmingly icky event. You can read it here: http://eggsovertokyo.blogspot.com/2004/12/country-mouse-online-dec.html