Written for: Poetic Bloomings2 – Prompt #267 – “Begun Too Soon”
“We have entered November. Thanksgiving looms, but it is over-shadowed by what has begun on the music radio/streaming sites. Christmas music has infiltrated the airwaves and there’s nothing we can do about it, save for turning it off. But if you’re of the inclination, by all means … enjoy.
Many people believe it all begins too soon. Think of something you believe starts too early, too soon … before its time. Write it! Make sure it’s in the form of a poem!”
I was a little kid
bringing home armloads
of drawings from Kindergarten.
Zipped into grade school,
had my first crush, and a
brush with a teacher.
School wanted me to skip
a grade. I refused. Mom
upset; panic attacks begin.
Whoosh! I am eighteen, all-
knowing, running off to
Mississippi to marry
my boyfriend in the Air Force,
against everyone’s wishes.
Ended before I turned twenty.
Whirled in a succession of live-
ins, lovers, psychos, drugs, and therapy.
Most of one year, I do not remember.
Now I am married nearly forty
years–an old broad. Why couldn’t
my middle years have lasted longer?
purplepeninportland 