Using alternate vocabularies is an old poetic strategy, but somehow it always works. To frame a topic — especially one as trite as love — in the lexicon of a sport, or a discipline, renews it. Refreshes a tired subject so that we see it new again. At least, that’s the idea!
Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt:
Today, I challenge you to write a poem that incorporates the vocabulary and imagery of a specific sport or game. Your poem could invoke chess or baseball, hopscotch or canasta, Monopoly or jai alai. The choice is yours!
Here it is — Enjoy!
Gin
You were not the card dealt to me originally
If love were gin rummy, played by children,
You would have been the wild card.
But not a joke – far too serious for that.
You fit too well with the rest of my hand:
The four sisters, each a queen in her own right;
The knaves I left behind me, even the king
I discarded when you came.
Now, when each day seems a new win,
I think of how wild cards always fit,
How luck follows them into each hand
How my life rebuilt around you.
Tea and Breath 