Laura Purdie Salas

Small Reads for Brighters Days

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Subway Map [15 Words or Less Poems]

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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.

Boston subway 15wol

Photo: Laura P. Salas

First off, love, love, loved the poems last week. And, if you’re wondering and didn’t see it in the comments, that was a little onion “volcano” at a teppanyaki restaurant, where they stack the onion slices to make a hollow cone, pour (I think) vinegar–or maybe just water–into it as it sits on the hot grill, and a cloud of steam “erupts.” It’s always fun. Sometimes they line up other veggies behind it to make a choo-choo train, and they “choooo, choooo” as it steams across the griddle.

This week’s image is a shot of a mass transit map in Boston, and it reminded me of several things:

  1. sewing pattern
  2. trying to defuse a bomb
  3. directions for assembling something I don’t understand how to assemble
  4. circuit board

For the first time in years, I am not sharing a first draft, because I just realized it’s Thursday and I’m already 3 hours behind in posting. Just got home from Fla. yesterday and hope to get back to my normal schedule over the next couple of weeks. What a summer. 

Blanket statement for July/August/early September. Hope you’re having a wonderful summer/start to fall. Mine is overwhelmingly busy and emotional. When you Comment, I get an email, and I will be doing my best to read every poem you guys write. But my availability over the summer to comment on each poem will be limited. By mid-September, I should be back to normal as far as posting and replying to comments/poems. Meanwhile, I hope you’ll write because you love it and enjoy this community. Please know I value your participation, even if I am not able to respond much right now.

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

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Comments

  1. Welcome home Laura. It takes time and you’ve experienced several life-changing events in a short span of time. The picture today also reminds me of a circuit board – the one in my brain! 😉

    Today’s “Roundtuits”

    Start at point A
    move to B, C
    BOOORRRing
    I’m off the grid
    enjoying “me.”

  2. Wow! A map of Boston. What memories that brings. Our son moved to the Boston area after college. It was (and is) a two-day drive away. Our first visit there, I actually drove in downtown Boston in days before GPS. I had studied the map, but then would find where I wanted to turn was ONE-WAY, the wrong way!
    Glad you are back, Laura.

    Boston

    We spread the map
    with magnifying glass in hand.
    We find our destination.
    Adventure ahead!

    • Love that second line. Now that I can follow the blue dot on my phone, I can’t imagine how we used to manage with paper maps all over our laps and never folding back up properly. Or was that just me? 😉

    • At least you can still find your destination. Even though GPS is worthwhile, I still like to peruse a map as additional information. Good job Pat.

  3. I’m glad you’re finally easing back into “normal,” Laura, but I bet it takes some time.

    Pat’s poem inspired mine, also from trouble navigating Boston, and other cities since!

    Streets have Too Many Names

    Map in hand
    the streets have one name.
    Out the windshield,
    street signs
    have another.

  4. Like Martha, that picture made me think of my brain on hectic days.

    DETOUR TO SANITY

    My must have list-
    (I’m lost otherwise)
    held tight in my fist,
    brain in disguise.

  5. Lechmere in bold letters on the map reminded me of Lechmere Sales, where we bought our first Hi-Fi (pre-stereo days). Juggling it on the subway was the challenge.

    Lechmere Sales

    Prize at the end of the line
    Huge store with everything
    Worth the trip

    • I’m happy you were happy with your prize. I’m sure residents think nothing of riding the subways – I’ve only been a tourist and trying to not act like a tourist on a subway train is an oxymoron. Good eye on the map!

  6. Such a interesting pic to write about

    poem By Jessica Bigi
    Directions On lacing Tenner shoos

    pull lace through
    bottom holes
    crisscross laces
    X X X X X X
    make a loop
    make a loop
    tie a bow

    • Such a interesting pic to write about

      poem By Jessica Bigi
      Drections On lacing Tenner shoos

      pull lace through
      bottom holes
      crisscross laces
      X X X X X X
      make a loop
      make a loop
      tie a bow

  7. An onion volcano? I did not know that such a thing existed! Glad you are home, Laura, and I hope that you have time to breathe and enjoy the fall.

    This picture took me back many years, when I briefly lived in Boston after college. I always had an eye on the map!

    New Knitting Project

    Stitches drop,
    needles splay,
    yarn tangles like lines
    at a subway station…
    where’s the map?

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