Nothing Like Being Challenged on Day 10 of #VerseLove with a lil' Quirkiness. Always Fun to See What Results on a Blank Page and a Prompt

It is very impressive to see writer after writer, teacher after teacher, delivering quirky poems as prompted this morning on EthicalELA's #VerseLove. The poem about a rubber ducky squeaking tour guide won me over and so I began to think of the intricacies and quirks of my own life - well, the ones I chose to explore for a poem (at least)(and when you only give yourself a few minutes every morning to play.

I kept a Quirky Blog in 2009 and always have loved the word...so yesterday another poem was born.

 Confessions

     ~b.r.crandall

I sleep with Mary Elizabeth

(her name said with  a Vincent Price voice.)

and I’m afraid to give her away -

head severed from body…

arms, legs, and eyes 

all dolled up in 

the butcher paper

she came in.

Friends

give the

best gifts.

It’s probably why 

I kept toenail clippings

to commence

a high school graduation

for any child who had 

abnormal foot fears - 

a little wilder than Gene,

and more gob-stopped than Veruca.

I learned as a boy 

to swat flies dead

and to store them

like twisted raisins

& balled-up black string

in the mouths of ceramic frogs - 

the one anatomically

breasted and ding-donged

if placed upon their backs

(who wouldn’t want a rose garden

sculpted from Feen-a-Mint gum?). 

It’s okay to be the apple

that didn’t roll farm 

from grandmother’s willow tree.

So, when they place 

a Danish wiener 

under your pillow,

you get postage

and mail it to their home…

a nice welcome mat

upon their return.

Who isn’t drawn 

to the roller skaters 

with butterfly wings —-

the masked, caped crusaders

who twirl armpit hairs

as they dance 

all alone 

at prom

with a 

book?