Immersion Suit [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  I am also so grateful for all your support as I announced the hiatus of 15 Words or Less. I hate announcing when I’m going to be ending something. It’s much more fun to announce beginnings! Please do remember that if you’re a teacher using these images with students, or a poet using them for inspiration yourself (or both), you can find my 15 Words or Less posts going back years and years here.

While Christmas is a time of joy for many, I know the holidays are also extra hard when we’re grieving or going through tough times. So I decided to share a very silly image today. This is my husband, Randy. When we took my research trip on the fabulous Great Lakes freighter, the Paul R. Tregurtha, there was a safety drill. We were to take our immersion suits to our muster station when the alarm rang. Randy decided to go one better and try on the suit first. Yep. I didn’t filter this one because, well, it already seems surreal.

Randy Salas tries on the emergency immersion suit on the Paul R. Tregurtha freigher in advance of a safety drill.
Photo: Laura P. Salas

This image makes me think of several things:

  1. Gumby (of course)
  2. those horrible waving things (okay, I see they are called air dancers, skydancers, tube men, and more)
  3. a lobster

And here’s my first draft.

 

It’s your turn! Have fun and stick to 15 WORDS OR LESS! (Title doesn’t count toward word count.)

 

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20 Responses

  1. Immersion suit
    fluorescent glow
    next haute couture highlighting
    Chanel runway show

      1. Dianne, this brings back some memories of our daughter’s trying crab legs for the first time. Thanks for the laugh!

  2. Emergency! Emergency!
    Don your Christmas immersion suit!
    Only five more shopping days!

  3. Love your neoprene lobster. Laura. And, to quote Bob Hope (showing my age), “thanks for the memories.” I wish you only the best as you enter the next phase in a successful career.

    Behind Every Successful Man … .

    Tantrums won’t work
    you know better
    white yellows
    moths lunch
    Christmas letters
    kids deserve better!

    .

    1. Thanks so much, Martha???? I’m trying to figure out exactly what this poem is talking about. I can interpret it a few different ways. Would love to hear what you were thinking as you wrote it!

  4. Love the goofball grin on your sweetheart–I hope he doesn’t mind that I’ve turned him into a lobster.

    Randy the Lobster

    Lobster waves his lobster claw,
    stuffs his catch in lobster maw.

  5. Yay, time to write during break while subbing. How could I resist?
    A Man, A Plan, A Quandry:
    Ode to dear Randy

    Smiling, dancing Santa?
    No beard, no gifts displayed.
    Perhaps “just” a novice
    practicing for Christmasday?

  6. Oops, sorry. Randy’s red suit made me think Santa Claus. Mrs. Claus has been nagging him to check his suit, at least twice. White had yellowed and moths were hungry,
    One should not have to explain one’s poem. Yikes and thanks.

    1. No apologies, martha! 15 words is SO short to get a point across. This was the explanation I was leaning toward, and I’m happy to have it confirmd :>)

  7. poem By Jessica Bigi

    Storybook Hearos

    Gee
    Randy
    gingerbread
    Jamey’s
    smiley face mittens
    moon-boots
    sneakers
    running
    wail little ones
    giggle
    the end

    1. Little kids are often laughing at Randy! Love the picture you paint with gingerbread jammies and smiley mittens:>)

  8. I can certainly understand how you might have read it as negative toward Randy. For that I really apologize. Merry Christmas!

    1. Oh Martha, stop! I never took it as anything negative towards Randy, and you have nothing to apologize about! I was just wondering if I was interpreting it correctly. The details seem to give me that general picture, the one you explained, but I just wasn’t quite sure. That’s all. No need for apologies or feeling bad about anything! Xoxo, Laura

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