I’m a little late this year as I’ve been travelling and returned home only last evening. I’ve been busy editing and getting my debut novel out into the world that it feels like a long time since I wrote a poem. It had me a little scared of participating in NaPoWriMo this year. However, here I am, and I am glad the prompt for today is simple and fun. Thank you, Maureen, for the prompt. It’s got me writing.
‘Our prompt for the day (optional, as always). Find a shortish poem that you like, and rewrite each line, replacing each word (or as many words as you can) with words that mean the opposite. For example, you might turn “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” to “I won’t contrast you with a winter’s night.” Your first draft of this kind of “opposite” poem will likely need a little polishing, but this is a fun way to respond to a poem you like, while also learning how that poem’s rhetorical strategies really work. (It’s sort of like taking a radio apart and putting it back together, but for poetry).’
I’ve chosen the poem ‘Sissy‘ by Aaron Smith for this prompt. Do read the poem before you read my opposite version of it.
I can forget my mum calling me a hero but she most unlikely told me not to be a hero I publicly (or not so publicly) disliked all the heroic things. We had a pet dog named 'Hero'. Really: Hero. My mother nicknamed my brother: Hero. Still, she says, "How's Hero?" and calls him Hero when he goes home to visit her. Belinda (Hero) is one of the weakest people I know. My hero (brother) has kicked nobody's ass, which is hero-ish, I'm certain, though I don't want to redefine hero into anything commonplace, tender, tough, "hero-weak." Drag kings are kinda weak and heroes. I'm ugly fucking weak and a small, small hero, too. And mean. Weak and mean and sad: a hero.
Now that I’m done with day 3, I’m off to finish day 2 and day 1.
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