20

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “I’ll Never (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the new poem. Possible titles include: “I’ll Never Write an Excuse Poem,” “I’ll Never Go to Disney World,” “I’ll Never Tell a Lie,” or “I’ll...



It drifts so far away now.
Where is it?
I try to paint this - how I hide
in a pile of leaves and can smell them
can smell them like it is now
but as soon as I say now
a vortex pulls fast away and
there is a little image
tiny and upside down
and I can't smell the leaves
anymore
and then I can
and then I can go inside
and then I can be how I was
before I really even had an ego
and I could lay in a bed
covered in a quilt we'd made together
of fabric scraps we'd ripped apart together
and I will never
pull together that black and yellow material
or that paisley material
or that soft burgundy bit
into a circle that could be made into a blanket
that could cover a girl because
I am on the long end of the reverse telescope
and the past
isn't even a foreign country

the past
has sloughed away from my skin
a hundred times

who am I
that even remembers?