I Must've Been Hungry

I'm taking an Honors Poetry class this year.

For one, I'm taking it to satisfy a gen-ed requirement.
For two, I'm taking it as my fourth (out of the five) required Honors class.
For three, I'm taking it because I'm an English major.
For four (???), I'm taking it because I love writing. And it sounded fun. :)

Today, in class, we did our first poetry draft exercise. Ohhhh boy.
It's called a "Ten-Minute Spill." (You can probably guess why-- we were given a few parameters and a block of , yes, ten minutes, to "spill" our creative juices out onto a page in our journals.)

The parameters were as such:
1. The poem has to be ten lines long.
2. The poem has to include an old adage/proverb/cliche which the poet revises/changes in some way.
3. The poem has to include the following words:
- Cloud
- Lick
- Mother
- Blackberry
- Voice

And... go.

Here's what I came up with in a very stressful ten minutes (that seemed a lot more like two):


I nudge through the fridge past the ancient can
Of way-past-the-due-date blackberry jam
My mother would scold me if, eyeing my plate,
She were to see the remains of what I ALREADY ate.
I see what my eyes lust for (my stomach protests):
A cloud of forgotten banana pudding all else bests.
I scoop out two helpings, give the spoon a swift lick--
Yet, as I finish-- "I'm going to be sick!"
Her voice, full of reproach, vibrates through my brain:
"Ignore those big orbs of yours when your tummy cries: 'REFRAIN!' "


Ha. Ha. Ha.
All I could come up with was something food-related.
And very realistic, too--
* My eyes very often ARE bigger than my stomach (that was the adage; did you catch it?)
* My mom is usually the one who reminds me of this. ^
* My mom makes really good banana pudding, that I always eat way too much of.
* We really DO have an old can of blackberry jam in our fridge, which likely spoiled about a year ago.

Needless to say, after class, I returned to the House and headed immediately for the pantry where my stock of foodstuff awaited me. :)