Day 21 of NaPoWriMo. The prompt:
write a poem that incorporates wild, surreal images. Try to play around with writing that doesn’t make formal sense, but which engages all the senses and involves dream-logic.
I’ve been told before that I don’t make sense, but I’ve never before been asked to make less sense. Does that make any sense? Here goes:
Jackals in the Key of C-Sharp Major
When the jackals came calling, we hid
on top of a mound of field mice stacked like rows of bricks.
The jackals didn’t see us;
they were searching through the magazine racks to the east.
Turkey vultures triangled above, calling to the jackals,
pointing with their flowing pink boas,
but the jackals didn’t hear them pointing.
They were listening to us sing songs about the stupid jackals.
The field mice joined in on the chorus,
but only when it was in the key of C-sharp major.
Then the tanks rolled in, three across and ten deep,
camouflaged with tie-dyed circles the color of a midday shadow.
They rumbled through the disco,
rattling the ground with their relentless tracks,
strewing trails of Skittles in their wake
like so many teeth shaken loose from a cantaloupe skull.
Turkey vultures flapped their pink boas and chased the Skittles to ground,
trying once more to alert the jackals,
but all the hapless birds could manage to squawk out
through candy-jammed beaks were
the words “peace” and “sunshine.”
The field mice, or at least the bravest among them and
those upon whose heads we were not standing, ran
toward the turkey vultures singing “peace and sunshine.”
They wanted to join in on the chorus,
but only if it was in the key of C-sharp major.
The jackals chased the field mice down the tank tracks,
scattering Skittles, tripping over turkey vultures,
dancing through the disco, flipping through magazines,
and came to a rumbling halt at our feet, and – non-coincidentally –
at the teeny-tiny paws of such field mice as had remained behind.
Other than the pink boas circling their heads like fluffy crowns,
the jackals looked utterly ridiculous.
And stupid.
We sang them a song in the key of C-sharp major
and headed home.
All of us.
What Rhymes with Stanza? 
I think that was a current political commentary masked in a children’s story. I can’t wait for the animated movie!! Very good, but perhaps you made more sense by making less (you and Carroll). 😀
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Tomorrow’s children’s story for Earth Day is much more obvious 🙂
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😀
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Bravo! And congratulations on being featured 🙂
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Thank you! It was such a nice surprise!
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Pingback: NaPoWriMo 2019 Day 22 | awritersfountain
Yeahh! I’m glad you were featured with this poem. It’s just the tip of the iceberg of what you can do when you let yourself off the leash. 😉
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Thank you! The leash is so much more comfortable, though…
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Isn’t that a fact…
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(Then the tanks rolled in, three across and ten deep,
camouflaged with tie-dyed circles the color of a midday shadow.
They rumbled through the disco,) I LOVE THIS !
I also went Disco on this prompt…
I read yours as Boomers going from the 1960’s into the 70s which I am sure you explicitly intended ha ha ☺
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haha! But of course!
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My favorite:
“strewing trails of Skittles in their wake
like so many teeth shaken loose from a cantaloupe skull”
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Thanks!
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