PAD Challenge Day 22

Cover of Fairest

We poets have been put on the bench this morning for the prompt: write a judging poem. You can be the judge or, if you prefer, you can be the one judged. Okay, Robert. Here goes.

 

Guilty

Aren’t we all?

Don’t we cringe

When faced with stares

That bring blushes

To cheeks, downcast eyes?

 

Who can say with truth

They never did wrong?

Who can stand upright

Without guilt lying within?

Who can judge any but self?

© Claudette J. Young

Have you ever had one of those lines that haunt you, keep running through your mind so that it zips back through at the oddest times? Me too. Those over at Poetic Bloomings must have had the experience as well, because they gave us the opportunity to take care of that problem today.

The poetry prompt this morning was to “take the last line of a poem you’ve already written this year and make it the first line of a new poem. Like a dutiful poet, I complied. Here’s the result. I took the last line of my poem for Day 13 of the PAD Challenge and used it for a different concept for Poetic Bloomings. I hope you enjoy the irony.

 

Beauty

A sacrifice to her hourglass self,

Her life becomes a painful series

Of diets, exercise, and calorie counting,

Striving always to be Mirror’s perfect

Reflection, a temple to evoke envy

From all who witness her magnificence.

Ah, the resounding pity, should anyone

Guess she wept each day for the luxury

Of tasting just one sliver of birthday cake.

Queens pay, too, for being the Fairest of Them All?

© Claudette J. Young

 

Please leave a comment if it suits your fancy.

 

Related articles

• Mixing It Up with Poetry (claudsy.wordpress.com)
• Poetics: Duty Calls! (dversepoets.com)
• National Poetry Month (asolitaryramble.wordpress.com)