NaPoWriMo Day #25 - In which I am so very tired

This was our prompt for today -- and it was a good one, but...

In Joseph Harker’s prompt today, let others do the heavy lifting of inspiration.

Keep an ear out for the first sentence (or even word) that is said to you after you read this prompt. (Poetic license: If the first few words are exceptionally boring, wait for the first uncommon or peculiar one.) Take that word/sentence — it could be “mango” or “exemplar” or “have you ever been to this Ethiopian restaurant?” — and build a poem around it. Maybe you have deep thoughts on mangoes or a narrative of heartbreak and spicy injera from the restaurant mentioned. Trust in fate.

I think this offering may be relevant to only those who have some experience in education. Teaching has become, unfortunately, a very thankless job. I will leave it at that. Other than to say that both my husband and I teach English and this was the first 'interesting' thing he said to me this morning (he's been awake for hours already grading and I have just entered the world of consciousness).

“You should really read my Pimpernel Sonnets”

While I’m spreading too much
margarine on my bagel
and the kids are playing
in the basement

Beside the basket of unfolded
laundry on the table, and the doll
stroller in the middle of the floor

“I told them that if they want the full
grade, they will write with iambic
pentameter...”

There’s a google of dandelions
waiting my destructive attention
and the grass climbs closer
to heaven than it ought

There’s a list a mile long that needs
my thought, but I take
the papers because you’re so proud
and want to share one of the still
small joys, so few that exist
while they are more interested
in their recent ‘biological’
adventures

Breakfast will wait, laundry will
crease, but who cares, the doll
will still be there this afternoon
even after admonitions and
dandelions are forever

But this moment...