14th November 2008
This assignment is basically about similes. First few lines of the poems were given. I had to end it with a line or finish up the poem. Given lines are highlighted in bold and italics.
…
1.
Now she swats backyard butterflies
When she feels like a girl who is
Waiting
For her date to arrive.
Like an ant in a hotpot
She now swats backyard butterflies
Whenever the pangs of jittery
Engulf her in one full swipe.
2.
Their vague features and inconstant touch
are posed like two lovelorn lovers
fingers barely touching
like the two opposite ends of a magnet.
3.
Like the colonies that never stop producing
Day in, day out.
4.
Even then he was in some ways invisible,
At the wheel, anonymous as each swaying tree
Lined up by the long narrow path where
Each willow waving its undulating arms at him
As if saying ‘farewell my friend’
At the wheel, driving towards the unknowns.
5.
Maples ignite beneath the black damp fog
Like little people dancing
Under the dark musty moonlight.
6.
She is doing her job,
like bagging and sneering
wishing she is one of them
picking and chattering all day long
7.
Like a lion cage at feeding time –
The glutton is at his peak
Eyes shining like wide saucers
Chomping down his 9th pizza.
8.
You think you’ve understood
the tone of their sentences – disbelief
or wonder, then resignation –
as if the world would engulf into its own core
with widespread destruction
while others anticipate with fear
9.
in some grove
some municipal greensward
chewing a leaf
that has left him stoned
as a milkweed butterfly flits from flower to flower
as a rhinoceros beetle scurries past the ground
he stands still, waiting, watching.
10.
It spins like a lockstitch machine
So delicate yet sturdy
Quietly churning its best
While it can
