SPARKS
The following is poem number 21 of 2009’s NaPoWriMo – 30 poems in 30 days during the month of April. The original prompt was, ‘in away”. I’m not sure how it got to its final form, but my initial thought had something to do with the unique kind of love you only experience in your adolescence.
SPARKS
Shelly only visited once a summer and couldn’t sit still.
My best friend’s cousin from New York, at night by tiki torch
she did cartwheels back and forth as our pack watched
awestruck at her body beginning to form. She didn’t care
when her T-shirt came untucked, snuck up over her head
and parts of her we’d never seen fell out, even if all we saw
was the idea of what we thought was there.
She said we’d never know how it felt to touch
then let us one-by-one, made me go last
because we were in love. Once the rest scattered off
she led me behind a row of pines, showed my hand
where to go, motioned to a downed power line that hissed
like a snake just waking. If you stare long enough
sparks fly out. And we did.
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Tags: April Fools, NaPoWriMo 2009, national poetry writing month
