POEM STARTER
Submitted by Brittany Lawson
Write a poem about someone stuck in a cycle of self destruction. Just as they are about to exit the cycle or have a breakthrough, the poem starts back at the beginning.
Larry
Break the bottle open
Its half past nine
Run out of rum and living on a dime
Night terrors eclipsed
By a cold strip mall bench
Always in thought, fists always clenched
My thumb a bookmark
Between the Psalms and Job
Living on pity and dying on hope
A coffee from McD’s
A Chomps beef stick
Wishing, wishing I could take my pick
Is there a chance…
A dream of warmth?
Could I be different, in stronger form?
Could time transform
Could it peel away
This dirt, this shame…
Or is it here to stay?
Drowning for a taste
Neck-high in the crave
Quenching the urge with nothing but words
The truth is so simple
And impossible to believe
No grace could save a monster like me
A daughter abandoned
A man on the run
No woman could stand this son of a bum
I’ll take my chances
No god looks on me
And stick to my dances, the royal we
Break the bottle open
It’s half past nine
Run out of rum and living on a dime
