Sheron Young

TWO WEEKS AGO

Sheron Young 

Two weeks ago I went to a poetry workshop

Two weeks ago you asked me to write a Slam Poem

Two weeks ago I did not know what a Slam Poem was!

I WAS CONFUSED

You told me to forget about

Hauntingly romantic stuff

Sealed with a kiss stuff

Romantic bliss stuff

Over the moon stuff

Mills and Boon stuff

YUK!

NO!

You said be blunt

Cut to the chase

Grab by the balls

Short and curlies and all

Give us the bones of the story you said

Spew out the words

Blood guts and all

Like the innards from a hung-drawn-and-quartered corpse

Displayed for all to see on the castle walls

In the Good Old Days

But then

I remind myself

I can’t write Slam Poetry

I thought I told you that?

Are you listening when I say that I can’t?

Suddenly I realise that can’t is not a word

I know it is not a word because I looked it up in the dictionary

So it must be true that can’t is not a word

Well then, I think, maybe it’s impossible for me to write a Slam

Impossible is a word, I know it is a word, because I looked it up in the dictionary

I AM STILL CONFUSED

So I will put on my thinking cap because I know it will help

Everyone has a thinking cap, right?

I find mine in the conglomeration of whatever lies under my bed

Everyone has conglomeration under their bed don’t they?

Wearing my thinking cap, I find only one possible answer

Yes, it is obvious, this must be a nightmare

It’s just too weird, it can’t be reality

Oops forgot again, can’t is not a word

One thing I do know for sure is that nightmares are possible

I looked it up in the dictionary, so it must be true

Nightmares are a place where the impossible can happen the dictionary tells me

So I conclude this is a nightmare

Everyone has nightmares

Everyone knows nightmares are not real

I am reassured because I know when nightmares are over I wake up

When I wake up I will write a Slam

Because you asked me to

Two weeks ago