Zelda's Inferno exercise: one (or more!) of the following, from http://www.davidrm.com/thejournal/tjresources-exercises.php#poetry
- Write a poem using the prompt: "chain-link fence"
- Write a poem about a very small object.
- Write a three part poem using "metronome".
- Write a poem based on the concept or idea of a "Mobeus strip".
- Write a poem using, "paper and chalk".
I remember middle school art class
drawing on paper with chalk
rubbing the pigment into the paper
the texture of the thick manila paper, the powdery chalk
sent a nauseous chill down my nervous system
gut-deep and inexplicable response
some strange accident in the brain
that something innocent and meaningless
can trigger revulsion
I could rub sandpaper down my arm until it bled
and not feel that deep loathing
when I was a kid
my foot would fit into the weave of a chain-link fence
and I would climb any that I could
all the way up to the top of the
high fence around the basketball court at the elementary school
and I would sit at the top
and look around
just to see from on high
my feet are too big now
and my weight is too great
to climb like that
but last week
with some clever and dangerous stepladder work
I climbed onto the roof of my house
for the first time in a decade and a half of being there
all the way up to the peak of the roof
and I stood there looking over my neighborhood
looking around
and I felt
and I knew
that though much
so so much
is different now
I am still that kid
who climbed to the top of that chain link fence
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