THIRTEEN DAYS

A challenge for the Almost Dead Poets Society to title a poem THIRTEEN DAYS, and include the first 13 words used in Dictionary.com's Word of the Day in May 1999! *See Note Author's Note for words

 

The moon is both black and white / with shades of gray
I am a mystic palindrome / who performs thaumaturgy
and has had it performed on me

From the Sorrows of Werter / I began to realize
I am incipient
Though some crossing my fated existence deprecate my existence
It's all necessary under this black and white moon / with shades of gray

A butterfly is pressed upon my chest / with hues of blues seeping through
the luckiest, unluckiest girl I know / and I know a lot / but
not everything

Some can't handle what I know
Some resent that I know not how to be perfect / because
perfect to you is different than perfect to him / and
there within falls the shades of gray

I am capacious
suffering / surviving the insufferable
When I glow some glower
They resent that I glow for a reason other than them
They don't like it if I glow for them / because
they are also frightened by beautiful possibilities

And that...my dear zombies...is sad / because
they are dying before they've lived / and
there within falls the hues of blues / There
a butterfly simply tries to live its 3 weeks of life
with simplicity and awe...a dapple on its wings
a mark on my left eye / Angels in the cemeteries
drawing me inside

I'm in some sort of bivouac / the emolument doesn't suffice
Another threat looms / mistakes made / but
how lovely these little flowers bloom
under this black and white moon

One becomes pugnacious / another, affectionate again
There's always confusion / a diffusion
from the questions / the answers
Umbrage forms on one side / dissipates on another

Gray

Light

Blue

True


Maybe...It's not you.

Author's Note

The words:
emolument: the wages or perquisites arising from office, employment, or labor.
palindrome: a word, verse, phrase, or sentence that reads the same backward or forward.
deprecate: to disapprove of; also, to belittle.
bivouac: a usually temporary encampment; also, to encamp.
umbrage: offense; resentment.
incipient: beginning to exist or appear.
dapple: a small contrasting blotch; also, to mark with spots.
pugnacious: combative; quarrelsome.
capitulate: to surrender under agreed conditions.
susurrus: a whispering or rustling sound.
thaumaturgy: the performing of miracles or magic.
capacious: able to contain much.
glower: to stare angrily or with a scowl.

Reviews

[LC Coyle]

"how lovely these little flowers bloom/under this black and white moon" my favorite lines- what haunting beauty! You used the prompt words wonderfully, I would never have guessed that 'dapple' or 'glower' was from the list.

[Everett DeValle]

Lette! Awesome work. Your flow is outstanding. Sorry, for the one liner. I'll spare you the one pager, you know how I feel about your art. ;)