WHAT IS POETRY?

Poetry is a radish
with green leafy top,
red cheeks
and a long white 
goat beard.
It is Mom's
beaming red cheers
and  Uncle's flushed 
with booze.
It's the brothers
and sisters,
Grandma and Grandpa,
it's all the dead poets
standing in the doorway
to watch me write,
and it's the brown
earth worm moving
round and round
making room
for the radish
to breathe.

     This is one of the weirdest poems I've ever written, but it's what has been going round and round in my head for the last few days.  The "radish" came from a poem by Linda Baie.  It was the last line of her poem and I guess I liked thinking about a radish.  Can a radish be like a poem?  Can a radish be like a person?  So here is your challenge for today--pick a fruit or vegetable and use it as a simile or a metaphor for something else--a person, a favorite pet, poetry or your life.  You've heard how people are described as pear shaped, now it is your turn to take it one step further.  This can be fun, so give it a try and let me know what you come up with in the comments below. I hope you have a grand time writing (and thinking possibilities) today.
    Oh, by the way, I had originally planned to make that cheers, another cheek, but I mis-typed.  When I went back to check the poem for errors, I saw my mistake and I had to question which word I liked better.  I decided on cheers,  because Mom would always cheer me on and the cheeks is understood.  Sometimes my subconscious knows what I should be doing before I do.

SLEEPY MONDAYS

Some Mondays
are a little hard for me.
I start my day too slow.

Mom stands at my doorway
and urges me to 
GO.   GO.   GO.

I want to turn over
and sleep some more.
But Mom, she will not wait.

She says if I don't
put a wiggle on
I surely will be late.



     All of us are late at sometime.  I remember when I transitioned from elementary school to Junior High and we got a lecture on being tardy and the consequences of three tardies in one grading period.  Do you remember the March Hare from Alice in Wonderland rushing around saying "I'm late.  I'm late."  The author Lewis Carroll was a math tutor at Christ Church College in Oxford, England.  At midnight the bells would start chiming in the bell tower. (This was before the time of wrist watches and cell phones with alarms.)  The students could hear the bells from anywhere in the town.  It meant they needed to get back to their rooms.  If a student wasn't back inside the gates of the college by the end of the 100th chime, the gates were locked and the student was locked out for the night. (And probably had to sleep on the streets.)   So your challenge for today is to write a poem about being late.  Have fun.  And if you are late in writing this poem, that is OK, I won't throw you out in the street.  Have fun.

QUESTION

I'm standing

in the doorway

and I'm looking out.

Inside is safe

outside 

there is doubt.

Should I stay here

or go out?

When inside is safe

and outside

holds doubt.