Writing Prompt

POEM STARTER

'Backwards'

Use this single word to inspire a poem.

Writings

“Recklessly Positive”

“Devil hates happy” The elder said to me and a group of Of pilgrims I had known before the world Had a very very very bad cough.

And those words struck me then As I sat, listening him recount wisdom, This time, stroking my wife’s hand, That tender bit of sweetness unknown to me In the before times.

And I squeezed it with sheer gladness Pulsing her reciprocally playful fingers In mine.

For fear— fear plagued our young marriage Fear plaguing those in a world exiting plague, Fear of subjecting my wife to a new religion, To strange customs, and stranger in-laws, Whose own love of their own son would often But not always Turn them hawkish, and fierce In an attempt to build protective walls Around what they had worked so hard to Raise and cultivate.

And in this strangeness, it was and is tempting To exercise trepidation To apologize for intrusion To make amends for lack of expectation To give a sigh when that long-ago expected image Of what perfect would be was not there

And all that slow, while The kind of while which twists and wrings the heart Like a sponge dripping cold anxiety with each breath.

All that slow while, the little horned one The accuser The deceiver Laughed and laughed, knowing that in sowing fear for a reality That was not the ideal He could destroy the germination of something good

And so I squeezed And she squeezed back And back And back again And squeeze and squeeze and squeeze and squeeze

Without heed nor care of who was watching.

We were reckless in our commitment to showing each other that we cared. The Devil hated that and we love it.