April 8 – Twenty Little Poetry Projects

Oh boy. Today’s prompt was originally developed by Jim Simmerman and has 20 different rules to follow, or to add, into a poem. (Here is a link to the prompt and the twenty little rules – https://www.napowrimo.net/day-eight-10/ ) Lots of thought and lots of fun for a one day turnaround. I took a comic turn to a serious subject.

Plagiarism


“Plagiarism is like a sweet and spicy chip”1
“May I use that, “ I said
“Skrunchy, what’s mine can be yours,
As long as there are proper annotations.”
“You are sweet, my ghost pepper.” she typed.
“I’m the steamy food truck to your appetite.”
Me pones caliente,” slipped through her lips
“Does that mean I’m spicy? Extra caliente?”
“Picante means spicy. Spicy like plagiarism.”
“Where one rides the sharp curled edge of getting caught,
And indulges in the crisp tang of stolen words.”
She considered his phraseology as her fingers
jumped from keyboard to chip bag.
The bright red chip assaulted her eyes,
but more heinously bloodied the keyboard
with its artificial color Red #6 detritus.
The “P” and “L” keys had become slow to respond.
Is it the build up of cayenne colored snack dust?
Or the laptop’s growing impatience of her
flirtations with sentence theft and revisionism?
“Who said ‘Style is the stuff you get wrong2’?”
“Neil Gaiman. On Masterclass.” he added helpfully.
“If I use that does it need a footnote?”
“Possibly. I hear he gets Picante if you steel his stuff.”
“He gets Spicy?” she replied, as she saw her thesis
dissolve into the unpublishable heat of scrutiny.
“Every quotable quote came from an aggrieved party,”
he said, licking the red devil’s pollen from his fingers.
“Balderdash!” I cried, slamming the computer closed.
Forget grammar and think about potatoes.3


1 Gillette Moorcroft, Breakfast conversation, 2023
2 Neil Gaman, Masterclass, 2020 (or so)
3 Gertrude Stein, How to Write, 1931

About Meg

Meg travels a lot for work. But sometimes she has time to draw and copy and fold. Favorite drink - TAB, favorite food - Bread, favorite sound - skates on ice.
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