My Day 30 poem is my response to the NaPoWriMo.net prompt, which is to ‘write a poem in the form of a series of directions describing how a person should get to a particular place.’

This is a small little world
more than deserving of these redundant descriptors

Beyond these walls may as well be
a thick haze, what a meteorologist might call soupy
roads and flight paths rendered invisible

Only electrons can make the journey
with any certainty
however scrambled they may get along the way

How I got here is convoluted and unclear
disappearing further from sight and memory with each step

Oh, I see glimpses and flashes and sometimes a spark
lighting little corners and stray particles in the dark
I go mute and let the colors flow outward, around, and through
wishing I could be with them, doing what colors do
wishing I could send all my colors to you

But there’s no map—it’s more of a maze, I think
only there’s no cheese at the end, only me

I don’t know the right combination of right and left turns
whether it goes in one side and out the other
or goes from the edge to the center
(or the center to the edge, from my point of view)

I don’t know how thick or high the walls are
since I can’t see or hear much that’s on the other side—
but maybe you can see me from where you are
for all I know

(Can you see me from where you are?)

I don’t know how to measure any of the distances—
miles, kilometers, years, songs, letters, even poems—
they don’t convert readily into conscious thought
and even then, I tend to go off on tangents

Oh, I see glimpses and flashes and sometimes a spark
lighting little corners and stray particles in the dark
I go mute and let the colors flow outward, around, and through
wishing I could be with them, doing what colors do
wishing I could send all my colors to you

(Can you see me from where you are?)

Except for my address, I can’t give you a precise location
I’m not exactly a vein of raw ore awaiting discovery
or being sought by miners from all parts

But maybe, just maybe, there’s a way
you can find me

If you call me—I am here

(30 April 2021)

 

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Wishes sometimes have consequences is available to order from your favorite local bookstore.

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