Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own poem that recounts a memory of a beloved relative, and something they did that echoes through your thoughts today.
Jamaica. A lignum vitae on our property, older than anyone alive could say. Aunt Elsie decided we should picnic under it. She fixed sandwiches, sliced cake, found an old bedspread, folded it twice, smoothed each crease flat over the roots. We ate. Above us the tree held still, the way old things do. Then a small squeal, and she pressed the cake dish down, fast, her hand already moving before any of us knew why. She packed everything. Ushered us inside. Shut the door. Scorpion, she said. Just that. One word. Her hands after—how steady. How she steered each of us by the shoulder, toward the house, like she was putting the afternoon somewhere safe.
Prompt Inspiration
Via NaPoWriMo
Amarjit Chandan has a pretty wild biography, but his poetry is often focused on place and memory – with his hometown of Nakodar appearing repeatedly. His poem “Uncle Mohan Singh” recounts, with a sort of dreaminess, a memory of the titular uncle playing the accompaniment to a silent film.
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