Here is my Day 16 poem using the napowrimo.net prompt: ‘a poem that uses the form of a list to defamiliarize the mundane.’ I don’t think my poem ‘defamiliarizes’ anything, but it is a list.

A bottle of seasoning I use on everything
A bag of brown sugar waiting months for me to take it out again

Lids to containers I can’t find
Containers with missing lids

An open box of pasta, half its contents remaining
An unopened box of pasta, full

A container of cumin I will never have use for
More pepper than I can grind in a year

Three kinds of garlic, from my garlic phase
Two kinds of paprika, neither of them the hot kind I like best

Rosemary, thyme, and basil—the old standbys
A container of cinnamon sugar, because sometimes you just have to
(plus: cinnamon toast for breakfast when I was a kid)

An empty space for the four cans of green beans sitting on my counter
Two measuring cups—one small, one large

Missing: one cat, who used to sneak in when my back was turned
and then demand help to get back out

(15 April 2019—posted April 16th)

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