They sprouted more than flew, and
there were quite a few, possibly dozens —
though, looking back, I always do
tend to exaggerate such incidents.
Anyway, this aphid swarm of grassy
greens decided to make me home,
and my chest crawled with specks, while
I waited for a bus to St. Peter's.
They could have been splattered "as if's"
spat from the mouths of hungry sparrows,
taken mid-swallow with a guffaw at
this tourist dressed in DayGlo.
I might've gotten the omen, but
intuition wouldn't surrender its clues
how to shoo insect guests attracted
by a coincidental cloth.
Perhaps they were meant as subtle hints —
an eternal city keeps its own agenda.
It's Day 28 of NaPoWriMo and the prompt from ReadWritePoem is intuition, in which we're supposed to write about an "a-ha" moment. I don't really have those, mine are more like "oh crap look what I don't understand" moments. This is based on a true story from my first visit to Rome, and no aphids were harmed in the making of it.
10 comments:
well sprouted Francis...thanks again for sharing
I love the phrase "coincidental cloth". Nice!
@Wayne I appreciate the visits.
@Marie Well, I revised that phrase out, though maybe I'll revive it for somewhere else. I get hung up on using the same word twice, and coincidental was too close to "incidents" from the first stanza for my liking. That said, I'm probably tinkering with this too much.
And on second thought I put it back.
Here's what I had as an alternate ending to the fourth stanza. Feel free to let me know which works better:
...
how to shoo off guests attracted
by my chancy choice of bright-yellow.
Francis,
Pesky little pests. Good post.
Pamela
Ditch the dayglo Francis...that attracts Italian insects!
Great imagery. For some reason I equate the gnats with type written letters. Olivetti gnats. So enjoyed this poem.
Francis,
I really enjoyed the image this evoked!
So creepy!
Eileen
I have some interesting memories from Italy, as well. For instance, I did not understand that I was supposed to buy the bus ticket in advance. So I kept a crammed bus waiting while I went into the nearest tabacceria to buy my ticket. Strangely, nobody on the bus was angry or irritated about this.
I enjoyed reading this one a lot. I am impressed, as always, by your ability to produce so many high-quality poems.
@Pamela They were pesky, but it's more humorous when you look back at it.
@Rall There's no more DayGlo in my wardrobe, so I think I'm safe.
@Marisa That's an interesting association. There may be a different poem hiding in it.
@Eileen Insect attacks are quite literally creepy ... and crawly :).
@Jenny Thanks, I think the quality suffers a little when I rush them out to meet these daily prompts, but it's still fun to do. I really enjoyed Florence, and the bus system was a little strange but neat that everyone obeys an honor system like that.
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