Happy Monday! Let's put the pedal to the metal and keep poeming.
(Click here to check out all the 2021 April prompts.)
For today's prompt, take the phrase "The First (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles include: "The First Kiss," "The First Day of the Month," and/or "The First Time I Rode a Bike" (which, by the way, ended with me in a fence, because we didn't cover how to brake). Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them. — Robert Lee Brewer, Writer’s Digest
The First Shot
Sunday, March 21, 2021, 7:10 p.m.
“County Public Health has vaccine appointments available. Individuals 18 years old or older who wish to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, please call the County Call Center to register and schedule an appointment.”
I call Monday morning;
they say I can come that afternoon and take my chances
that leftover doses will be available.
So soon!
But I can’t work it out, so I
make an appointment for Thursday
and the follow-up four weeks after.
I teach my indoor rowing class in the morning
and leave straight from the gym.
Get there early and join the car line.
Fill out a page of paperwork;
read through the packet of information and disclosures
every time the cars stop.
Finally I am getting close.
Mask on, window down,
sleeve pulled up, arm relaxed.
The first shot!
A Clifford the Big Red Dog bandage.
A sticky note with the time written on it
is affixed to my dashboard, and
my car is directed into the 15-minute line
for those of us without a history of bad medical reactions.
I feel fine. I feel fine!
I feel fine.