NaPoWriMo 1
Happy National Poetry Month!
While I am over the moon about writing a poem a day, I think I had forgotten how hard it is to come up with a poem a day--Yikes! It's only Day One! At least last year, I only posted the poems I liked. This month I'm putting it all out there.
So my April poetry won't be pretty but it will be interesting. Needless to say, everything is a first draft. Feel free to comment but be kind.
And I'm *really* looking forward to reading your poems this month! If you have a new poem and would like me to read it, just leave a note and I'll stop in to say hello.
First Job
At 16, I worked the concession stand at Circle 6 Theatres,
offering butter flavoring on large tubs of popcorn and upsizing
large drinks to the size of vats. I envied the folks going to the movies,
entering a dark room to come out the other side changed.
The shopping mall where the theater was located was a Petri dish
of human interaction—young Navy boys on shore leave
trying to pick up high school girls looking to cement their
jailbait status with all of their jailbait friends. After the late-night
movies ended, I’d walk down the house aisles
to find everything from used condoms to
drink cups filled with chaw. Eventually, I hated it all,
the hookups and breakups in the front lobby,
the unflushed toilets and syrup-covered floors.
When I came home from my evening shift
I smelled like burnt popcorn, my feet sore
from the overworked-underpaid burn that comes from standing,
a burn deeper than flesh or muscle. I stayed at the job
through most of my high-school years.
Wasn’t until later when I moved away from home
that I did all those things the lobby kids did in darkened theaters.
Now, Cirlce 6 is closed. The mall once filled with destinations
is home to stores with cool yet misspelled names
like DRESS 4 LESS, VIZIONS, and KOOL SHADES.
Rarely do I smell popcorn and not think about
the hard work of making people happy,
But, oh, to disappear in the dark for few hours
and come away as someone else—I long for it.
*The spelling of Theaters in the first line is correct.
**And now, I'm off to the movies!**
While I am over the moon about writing a poem a day, I think I had forgotten how hard it is to come up with a poem a day--Yikes! It's only Day One! At least last year, I only posted the poems I liked. This month I'm putting it all out there.
So my April poetry won't be pretty but it will be interesting. Needless to say, everything is a first draft. Feel free to comment but be kind.
And I'm *really* looking forward to reading your poems this month! If you have a new poem and would like me to read it, just leave a note and I'll stop in to say hello.
First Job
At 16, I worked the concession stand at Circle 6 Theatres,
offering butter flavoring on large tubs of popcorn and upsizing
large drinks to the size of vats. I envied the folks going to the movies,
entering a dark room to come out the other side changed.
The shopping mall where the theater was located was a Petri dish
of human interaction—young Navy boys on shore leave
trying to pick up high school girls looking to cement their
jailbait status with all of their jailbait friends. After the late-night
movies ended, I’d walk down the house aisles
to find everything from used condoms to
drink cups filled with chaw. Eventually, I hated it all,
the hookups and breakups in the front lobby,
the unflushed toilets and syrup-covered floors.
When I came home from my evening shift
I smelled like burnt popcorn, my feet sore
from the overworked-underpaid burn that comes from standing,
a burn deeper than flesh or muscle. I stayed at the job
through most of my high-school years.
Wasn’t until later when I moved away from home
that I did all those things the lobby kids did in darkened theaters.
Now, Cirlce 6 is closed. The mall once filled with destinations
is home to stores with cool yet misspelled names
like DRESS 4 LESS, VIZIONS, and KOOL SHADES.
Rarely do I smell popcorn and not think about
the hard work of making people happy,
But, oh, to disappear in the dark for few hours
and come away as someone else—I long for it.
*The spelling of Theaters in the first line is correct.
**And now, I'm off to the movies!**
Comments
I like the poem,the roughness of the draft works in the sense of jumbled memories. Perhaps less detail or a prose poem.
I have my first poem posted. Hope the movie was fun.
this i like...
it feels real.
I'm doing NaPoWriMo, too, wondering what the end of the month will look like.
Beautiful, and true when the movie is good, like The Lives of Others, which I saw this weekend and highly recommend!
Happy poetry month!