PAD 2022 Day 15: Patience

 

This poem is presented in its rough draft form for the PAD 2022 challenge and will be revised. 

PAD Prompt: Patience 

Poetic Form:  Acrostic

Untitled 

Passing intersections, each a moment,

Another chance to change direction

Til everything is right, nothing left

In the questions we ask only to ourselves.

Enough is a word we never use.

Notes of fear linger on our tongue after

Catching in our throats. We wonder how

Every road we travel never leads us home.

Poetic Form 87: Gwawdodyn

 Old Shoes

Like broken-in shoes, I feel the past

comforting my steps forward. Steadfast

I open the door, embracing the four

corners of the world, running at last.

Poetic Form #87: Gwawdodyn

The gwawdodyn is a Welsh poetic form with two options. The main rule

is the poem is  a quatrain (4-line stanza) with 9/9/10/9 syllable pattern.

Lines 1, 2, and 4 have the same end rhyme. The variation is in the third line.

 

Version one has an internal rhyme within the third line to the end rhyme of that line. 

 

Version two has an internal rhyme in the third line that rhymes with an internal

rhyme in the fourth line.

 

In both versions, the rhyme starts somewhere in the middle of the third line and

it is a unique rhyme as compared to the end rhyme in lines 1, 2, and 4.

Version one would look like this: 

xxxxxxxxa

xxxxxxxxa

xxxxbxxxxb (the internal rhyme can move a little)

xxxxxxxxa

Version two would look like this: 

xxxxxxxxa

xxxxxxxxa

xxxxbxxxxx (the internal rhyme can move a little for both lines)

xxxbxxxxa

To the teen sitting on the step

I am approaching a four way intersection

on a summer weekday

Stop signs making traffic hitch and pause

As people wonder what the rule is for who goes first

You are sitting on the step of the house

at the corner

Dressed in all black

black shoes

black socks

black shorts

black shirt

dark hair

Your arms are wrapped around your knees

Chin hiding behind your forearms

Your head moves slightly with each car passing

I turn my gaze back to the traffic

I wonder what is going on

Did you not take the garbage out when asked?

Is he drinking already (it’s two in the afternoon)?

Did she end it with a text message?

Or were you told, again, how worthless you are?

I am now in the stop sign queue

four cars to go

Debating if I should turn to look at you

Now that I am almost parallel to you

I recognize the body language

closed

feet tapping

caged

yet afraid to run

I chance it

our eyes meet

I can see the red highlights around your eyes

Feel the hate expressed through the

    “What are you looking at?” expression

We break our glance at the same time

I feel guilty that I can’t change anything

    because I’ve sat there on my own step

I push the gas pedal down

crossing the intersection

Glancing into my review mirror

I see you are still sitting

Slowly becoming smaller as I  head to school

to be certified

By the Red Cross

to save a life.

The Point of Now

Count the ways

    to a single point

More than South

    West

    North and East

A 360 degree map

    a point

        from A to B

        but to C and Z, also

See,

    there is a time

    in fact, it is now

    even tomorrow

This point is accessible

Even for those

    who believe they are lost