Poem A Day: Day Three

The prompt for the day is to write a poem with the word "Partly" in the title (Poetic Asides). I made a list of Partlies: Partly Caring, Partly Vegetarian, Partly Christian... but landed on Partly Okay and it clicked. This pair of lines sprung into my head immediately:

For four years I sat in coffee shops

Waiting for you.

I wrote the original draft of the poem from there and found it pretty ordinary.

Then, while I was looking through posts in the Writers Digest Community, I came across someone's posting that mentioned their location as "somewhere between the head and ribcage."

I thought, cool... what if I changed the setting of the poem?

This is what came out:

Partly Okay

Four years I lurked inside a ribcage

Listening to the dwindling echo

While she waited for him to decide

 

If he wanted the house-and-kids life:

PTA meetings and the sprawling chaos

Of Christmas Eve with her family,

The singing socialist republicans.

 

You sit up there in your shallow crown

You say you see what’s going on.

Even from my bony hold I realize

Four years is a long time in limbo.

 

But when you consider this forever proposition,

When you think about a side-by-side someone

Who will endure stubborn Kool-Aid stains 

And late night scarlet fever scares

 

You might begin to understand

Why I am partly okay

With waiting.

Thanks for reading...

CelesteAvonne