This blog is devoted to a select group of poets. We're starting with poets from the Ann Arbor area, but, hey, if you're from Detroit, Grand Rapids, Saginaw or the Upper Peninsula, then that is okay, too. We've even been so generous to accept poets from other parts of the USA and the entire country of Canada!
Our goal is to provide you with a prompt every day from which you are to garner inspiration and submit a poem. How to submit will be very easy. Just put your poem or short story in the comments section and hit post. You may not immediately see your post, but it is there under the "Comments" section. You may need to click on "Comments" to see your poem. It is there on another page.
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Today's poem or short story prompt is the word "handsome."
Handsome Guy
ReplyDeleteFor the first time in my life I was happier than than Shawn. Shawn, of the ranks of the most handsome, hip-dressed, good jobbed, part-time musician and full-time heart throb.
I first met Shawn at an AA meeting. I'd been a shitty drunk and was into my second year of so-called recovery. This meant I hadn't had a drink or a drunk for almost two years. However, those twenty-one months were still filled with bitter disappointments, job firings, women troubles, and enough past due bills to keep me working until at least age 82. So that recovery part felt very far off.
"Keep coming back"
"It works if you work it"
"Progress not perfection"
"Sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly"
These are AA slogans and I kept telling myself to hang on, it will get better one day. I kept telling myself it would be a lot worse if I was drinking, but often this fell on my deaf ears as if I was drinking I wouldn't know how worse it was. Do you see my logic?
So when Shawn came into his first meeting in the basement of St. Anthony's Catholic Church, I was all prepared to hate him. He had model looks, his clothes didn't smell and I watched him walk into the meeting having exited a new BMW sedan. What the hell?
When it came time to share and tell us his story of alcoholic woe or bitter, angry resentment that the courts had sent him to AA after only two DWI's, I wasn't prepared for his humble "Is it okay if I just listen?" Jeez! I had shoved poor old Buddy P. out of his seat when he got up to get coffee so I could hear Shawn W.'s story. Now, I'd have to wait.
"Keep coming back," I told him. Shook his hand to let him know I was sincere. "It gets better."
Shawn hung his head and muttered what sounded like "Spanks." Although, on reflection, I'm sure he said thanks.
"Try to make 6 meetings before you make up your mind about us," I told him.
This had been told to me but I'd made up my mind before the end of my first meeting. I didn't have enough money for therapy or in or out-patient treatment and I couldn't take another girlfriend telling me that she thought I had a drinking problem.
Shawn nodded his head, walked out the meeting's revolving door and headed to his BMW. I watched him pick up a phone, dial, and drive out of the parking lot.
Catherine Powers
Copyright 2013
September 15, 2013
WRITING A SERMON
ReplyDeleteBlueprint:
(how it was going to work):
Working in the library would be easier
easier, at least, than home
or study hall
or the coffee shop
where a group of us met regularly
to pretend we had it all under control
and bolster our confidence that, if not, then soon
Inevitably, though, we talked about music
or politics
or the people at the other tables
or how the hostess making the coffee
would be a suitable partner
for the lone gay girl at our table.
Blackprint:
(how it actually went):
He was there
and I was not able to focus
My eyes refused to stay
on the stack of notes
written on 5 X 8 index cards
as per Jorge's suggestion
or on the books
open to the pages with the
small yellow PostIt stickies
or even on the spiral notebook
with the first two sentences of the sermon
that was due tomorrow
I stared, uncharacteristically,
at his pressed white shirt
and his profile
and his smooth chin.
He was clean, pressed, and handsome.
But too much so
Too much so
I remember a sunrise once
I'd woken up early because I was told
there would be a small flash of green
as the sun came over the horizon
There was no green flash
and I wondered what I had done wrong.
- Mike Fedel
Sept, 2013