What You Asked For: I am not a Poet

The assignment was to write a genre you don’t normally write in a setting you wouldn’t usually use. This is what came out, my apologies.

Elle Collins March 21st, 2011 Creative Writing Gehrman Quick Write

 

I am not a poet, this certainly can’t be poetry

Everyone gasped, age of consent? Let’s go with seven

Appalled, rightly so, but there’s a place and time for all things I suppose

I write this in a class, a room that is cold

Her voice drones, notes are not taken

How long until she discovers this is not her assignment?

I’m a bad example, don’t follow me

I have a degree in disarray, a minor in procrastination

My tests don’t reflect my attitude

Does it infuriate her I don’t even listen and yet I know?

 

My hood is up, I’ve been very isolated lately

I saw a young black girl working behind a counter

She served me food, I wish I didn’t think of what I did

He bought cheese sticks, he buys lots of things

He reads too, maybe he’ll read this, maybe

I hope he won’t, this is ugly

A black bird whose feathers I’ve plucked

I dipped them in red paint, the bird’s cry is hoarse

 

I’m not poetic, I’m not much of anything

I used to write songs, I can’t sing

One day I realized that song is just another word

I’m not a poet, I never wrote a song since

 

(insert scribble) I drew this by mistake, the result of the wrong side of a pen

                                You could come to the same conclusion about my life

I’m pushing him away, I know it, I feel it

It’s not him, I’m a disaster all my own

I don’t think this is what you wanted, but isn’t it what you asked for?