I’m participating in Miss Rumphius’ poetry stretch this week, and it’s a sonnet. I’m taking part in that same poetry challenge she mentions, and I could also use some sonnet practice. Since I haven’t written one in, you know, decades. What on earth have I gotten myself into?
Anyway, I have a sister coming into town this afternoon, so it was now or never. I sat down and hammered a rough sonnet out. There are some cliches in there and probably some rough meter, too. But frankly, I just wanted to see if I could even write a bad one, or if I was insane for trying.
Now, without further excuses, here you go:
5th Period
You shuffle toward the back row, your retreat
A row ahead of you, I smoothly slink
into a chair and glance behind and blink,
for I did not expect our eyes to meet
My stomach simmers with a quiet heat
I stare right through your eyes and cannot think
You perch above a cliff, right on the brink
and I will risk a fall to feel complete
The classroom disappears–a desert haze
Your question is tattooed upon my skin
No minutes, time has frozen, there’s no when
Once distant bells have measured out your gaze
The planets once more slowly start to spin
I look away–no use–I turn again
—Laura Purdie Salas (all rights reserved)