Still catching up! I’ve written several poems to catch up, but probably shouldn’t inundate the ether net w/ poetry. So I’m limiting myself to 2 posts daily: the day’s actual NaPoWriMo prompt, and one catchup. I may end up w/ more than 2 at the end!
The prompt for day #3 was:
Today I’d like to challenge you to write an elegy – a poem that mourns or honors someone dead or something gone by. And I’d like to ask you to center the elegy on an unusual fact about the person or thing being mourned. For example, if you are writing an elegy about your grandfather, perhaps the poem could be centered around a signature phrase of his. (My own grandfather used to justify whatever he was doing by saying, “well, I can’t sing or dance, and it’s too wet to plow,” which baffled me considerably as a child). Or perhaps your Aunt Lily always unconsciously whistled between her teeth while engaged in her daily battle with the crossword puzzle. These types of details paradoxically breathe life into an elegy, making the mourned person real for the reader.
I’ll leave you to decide if my response is suitably elegaic ~
Elegy for a dysfunctional dog ~
For Pascal
He farted.
A LOT.
Frenchies are known
For being gaseous
Gas giants
And his were powerful
One Christmas we sat
Our noses in our shirts
Breathing our own skin
His love just as oversized
Jumping madly until
You gave him what he craved
Attention. Touch.
Epileptic victim
Of his own faulty wiring
He would snap at illusory
Flies, then stare into space.
Startle him at your own peril.
Epilepsy is another word
For canine rage.
Still, the house is emptier.
No sulfur, no scratch of claws
Scuttling over hardwood
To chase a cat
Who misses him not at all.
But I do.
Tea and Breath 