Our prompt for the day (optional as always) asks you to peruse the work of one or more of these twitter bots, and use a line or two, or a phrase or even a word that stands out to you, as the seed for your own poem. Need an example? Well, there’s actually quite a respectable lineage of poems that start with a line by another poet, such as this poem by Robert Duncan, or this one by Lisa Robertson.
“Let’s admit, without apology, what we do to each other.
We know who our enemies are. We know.” Robert Siken @sikenpoems
Monkey trainer
8 April 20 0745
In the days of devil rum and weed
We kept it business,
As business as dealing with addicts can be
They thought inviting us in on the party was a friendly gesture,
We take cash upfront
No refunds,
We dont verify the strength
And this ain’t weekend free samples at the grocery store
There is no membership discount card
And the complaint department
Is in the basement
Inside of a disused lavoratory
With a sign on the door
That says beware the leopard
We are all aware of who and what we are
We know who our enemies are. We know
It’s the snitch trying to get time off
It’s the wanna be thug who thinks their size scares me
It’s the ones who think we are afraid of being outnumbered
When you deal for business
And not to support your habit
You’ve already thought these situations through
Let’s admit what we are to each other, let’s admit what we do
We are not your friends
We do not like you
If you had no cash
Or access to those with cash
We wouldn’t waste
Our piss to out out the fire
In your dead eyes
This is business, and I’ve wasted too much time talking to you
Begone
