I’m back home and strangely enough, I’m glad. I say, ‘strangely’ because that’s not how I was feeling when I boarded the flight. I guess, I am still getting accustomed to living in this country. I don’t know what i was dreading – the hot weather, the crowded, rustic airport, the mad traffic or this place where I barely know anyone. However, I was in for a surprise. The flight had barely any passengers; the airport wasn’t crowded as people here are still celebrating Eid holidays, the weather was pleasant- apparently, the temperature dropped yesterday and the roads, too, were relatively empty. To top it, when we reached home, the smiling faces of our local house help felt like a warm welcome.

Anyway, back to NaPoWriMo. I missed writing for yesterday’s prompt because I was travelling. I’ll try and complete it by tomorrow. Today’s prompt is –

‘Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem in the form of a review. But not a review of a book or a movie of a restaurant. Instead, I challenge you to write a poetic review of something that isn’t normally reviewed. For example, your mother-in-law, the moon, or the year you were ten years old.’

Today, our daily resource is this very strange website that will write you a haiku based on your location. It seems to default to lower east side of Manhattan, but if you click the “locate me” link at the bottom left of the page, it will recenter someplace near you, and then serve you up a haiku. You can also drag the map around using your cursor, to recenter it on a new location.

Poetic review of my willpower

You and I need to have a talk
Would you like to go on a walk
or would you rather we sit?
Let me get to the point. I admire your grit,
your discipline and your willingness to work.
It’s commendable how you don’t shirk
from practising art or poetry-
As if you were bound by duty
or answerable to some higher power.
Hour after hour,
day after day, you sit without a break
as if your life were at stake.

I applaud your tenacity. I applaud you.
But if only you cared for my needs, too.
If only you showed the same determination
when it comes to resisting temptation.
You’re pretty selfish, I have to say-
how you sulk until you have your way.
How you pop in all forms of sucrose
and tell me, it’s a fuel for your poetry and prose.
You show no remorse
whatsoever, despite me crying out hoarse.
And to top it all, you validate your addiction,
by calling it, ‘A mere transgression!’

‘A paltry cost,’ you say
that I have to pay
for you changing my life of ‘obscurity’
and mediocrity’.
‘For a life of glory, name
and fame.’
Let’s get this straight-
I’ve had enough. I need to lose weight!
It’s all well and good – your creativity
But this is my body!
I have a vacation to go on
And I’m determined to look like Aniston*!

* Jennifer Aniston