Monday November 23rd, 2009

The exercise:

Steady as she goes with the NaNo.

NaNo Word Count: 46,905
NaNo Target: 38,335

The prompt for today: one step ahead.

On the bus ride in to work this morning, for the first time that I've ever noticed it, the bus was one stop ahead of the automated voice that announces the stops. It was rather disconcerting.

Mine:

He was always one step ahead,
Ever since the day we were born;
He slipped from our mother's womb first,
While I was sound asleep that morn.

And that's how it's been ever since -
No matter what time I get up
He's already waiting for me,
Smirking over his coffee cup.

But I know I'll get the last laugh,
Because at the end of our days
His face will freeze with that damn smile,
And I'll pour coffee on his grave.

Note: thanks to Irish, I just listened to this awesome Tom Waits song and now I can't read this poem without putting it to that rhythm. I think it works pretty well, actually, if you repeat the last line of each stanza. After smoking a few million cigarettes.

3 comments:

Nicole said...

I like your poem, and it does sound a bit like a Tom Waits song (I'm a huge fan of his). :)
I made it over 40K this morning, the end is in sight!

Greg said...

Hmm, I quite like the idea of having coffee poured on my grave. That would be refreshing, and may revitalise me as a zombie! I've not experienced the bus being one stop out of sync, but I have sat on a bus where the automated voice was narrating a completely different route. That was weird!

Good poem, too!

One step ahead.

Our conversations always disappointed,
Stumbling, awkward and disjointed,
Because you always seemed to know,
Where my thoughts were bound to go,
And so you stayed one step ahead,
Answering questions not yet said,
Replying to things I'd not yet dreamed,
And thwarting things I'd not yet schemed.
And so, because I had no choice,
I quieted my confused voice,
And never said a word again,
And lived my life in silent pain.

Marc said...

Nicole - hey! :)

And thanks - I only wish I'd heard the song before I wrote it. Now I want to do another one, more purposefully in his style.

Congrats on 40k!

Greg - haha, that would be quite odd.

That's a great poem, I liked the dreamed/schemed rhyme :)