When we finish today’s poem, we’ll be officially 20% of the way through this challenge. Poem by poem, we’re building up some great first drafts. So let’s keep it going!
For today’s prompt, write a trap poem. There are physical traps—like mouse traps and bear traps. But people also sometimes fall into language traps or social traps. Many competitive types in business and various games try to set traps for their competitors. Of course, for every person setting a trap, there’s likely another person trying to avoid falling into traps. — Robert Lee Brewer, Writer’s Digest
My thinking about this one is a bit intertwined with the wish poem prompt of a couple days ago. “Be careful what you wish for” insinuates that something that seemed desirable on the surface could be a trap when actually experienced.
Many of us who have lost a loved one want nothing more than to have that person back in our lives. But one tenet of wish lore (true at least in Disney’s Aladdin) is that you can’t wish someone back from the dead. The Genie states it explicitly in his rules. I can absolutely see how receiving your loved one back from the dead could turn out to be a trap. Ever read (or see the movie) Pet Sematary? If that’s not a cautionary tale, nothing is! I realize I’m talking about literature — fairy tale and horror — rather than real life, but I’m a believer that a lot of real-world lessons can be learned from books!
It’s a trap
Trapped between what I wish and what I know,
I long for an alternate universe
in which I’ve raised two children to adulthood,
not just one.
There are so many possible paths
and yet we only get to walk one.
We choose the direction
we think is best,
or a course is determined for us,
and often there’s no going back.
But too many choices
also can be a trap
in which we spin and spin
and never move along.
And sometimes we want to make a choice
when none is available to us
and so we pine for it
and maybe stop living the life we do have
because we don’t see how.
So many ways to be trapped.
So hard to be set free.