I’m like , 20 poems behind…
Discarding
There. I did it.
The last plant you left me
dry , brittle brown and now
resting on top of the compost heap.
I wasn’t nice about it.
Slow starvation
Slow dehydration
Slow prolonged ending
Standing by the window
uselessly waiting —-
for me to notice the need
the wanting , the water.
Just like you,
I can’t make anything grow
I can only kill —
and admire the cleanliness
of the window sill
in the absence.
Good work. “…The last plant you left me [is] resting on top the compost heap…”
Next year or for the next challenge spend the time working on learning new (or old) poetic forms. If you set a goal like that you may find it easier to do 30 poems in 30 days. Any free verse work that I produce in these challenges is purely happenstance. And if the piece is good or has potential, I pull it aside and place it in the submission bucket.
Tell Joelle that I said hello. Her second book is far better than her first.