My mother gave me Grapenuts
while other kids got Frootloops
those artificially-colored
little donut shaped
sugar puffed
cereals
in
box
with a toucan
singing commercials
guiding me through the taste
smells and sight of delicious like
candy breakfast nutrition created
to make me want more and more
dVerse prompt— a fruitloop (sp) daydream
In the shade of the baobab tree
boto drivers wait to give rides
slim cattle rest from the sun
there are children who sit briefly
watching the cars and trucks
as the dust flies up
and the old men sit in their chairs
or walk further down the road
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NaPoWriMo Day 7 prompt to write a list poem
Hold air like water
float
traverse skyward
in a dream
unbroken
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dVerse prompt on AI. This picture came out of an AI program at the Dali Museum in St Petersburg. My childhood dream of swimming in air was typed into the program and this picture was created by AI.
I went out to the garden
looking for spelling bees
there were many beside me—
a bumble bee entered foxglove’s bell
it was not the one I seek
then one buzzed my head
anxious at my presence
to say the word
say the word
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dVerse prompt for a quadrille using the word spell
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Texting with my daughter
Exterior Afternoon
A baby is sleeping in a baby buggy under an old elm. The sun is shining on the buggy.
Voice Over
Jane There is something heartfelt about being born in Iowa.
A small butterfly flies into the buggy and lands on the baby’s nose.
The baby wakes up.
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NaPoWriMo Day 14 prompt to create the first scene of your life.
Grandmother would read to me
The Little Engine That Could
After all those readings
I thought I could
I thought I could
I thought I could
Chugging along
Getting a poem done
I knew I would
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NaPoWriMo prompt to give yourself a positive pep talk
When I was ten, I learned to swim. To hold my breath, submerge, and move underwater. Only the torso, legs and arms of other people were visible. No heads. I never timed these underwater adventures but swam about like some kind of fish. Eyes open but no gills; just my expanded lungs, increasing capacity to stay under longer and longer. I became an orca scouting its prey. My feet, the fluke, pounding surface with each new breath. My mouth spewing water into the sunshine.
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NaPoWriMo Day 8 prompt to write your alter ego.
I folded and creased the paper
to make a fuselage
long and slender
overlapped side wings
perfect aerodynamics
hoping it would stay aloft
that it would be lifted
by a current of air
and fly forward
tailwind taking it further
before the landing
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille using the word paper
I bless those who enter the fray
a mother praying nightly for safe return
now fights against sex traffic of child
in a country with a written law
helping law keepers to better know it
protect those who cannot protect own self
want to end slavery in our lifetime
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dVerse prompt to write a Kwansaba (seven lines, seven words per line, no word over seven letters)
wordshophop 