For today’s prompt, write a remix poem. That is, take one (or more) of your poems from earlier this month and remix it. Make a free verse poem into a villanelle. Or condense a sestina into a haiku or senryu. Or forget form. Just completely jumble up the words…or respond to the original poem(s). As always, have fun with it. — Robert Lee Brewer, Writer’s Digest
It was only two days ago that I wrote this one — Social Studies, based on some concept using the word social — and then commented that I’d like to come back to it later and rework it. Surprise! I guess now is my chance. (Note: I started, and made one attempt that turned out to be still very much kind of wandering and pointless. Somehow it ended up talking about Dr. Phil? What do I really want to say? Maybe distilling down into a haiku will bring the idea into relief.)
an introvert faces the pandemic
social isolation
is hard for reasons other
than being alone
Social Studies
Somehow I made it through school
and even through my 20s
without realizing I was an introvert
and understanding what that meant
I've become much more introspective
in the decades since then
I like knowing myself
and what makes me the way I am,
the instructions that explain
how I operate most efficiently.
I’m social in my own way,
kind of awkward,
not good in crowds,
happy alone,
but getting kind of tired of isolation.
The social studies —
the coping skills I must have developed
over those years
when I wasn’t conscious of what my needs were
— are paying off now
in these most unsociable times.