Poetry Prompt for April 15, 2023

National Poetry Writing Month (also known as NaPoWriMo) is a creative writing project held annually in April in which participants attempt to write a poem each day for one month. NaPoWriMo coincides with National Poetry Month in the United States of America and Canada.

This website is owned and operated by Maureen Thorson, a poet living in Washington, DC. Inspired by NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month), she started writing a poem a day for the month of April back in 2003, posting the poems on her blog. When other people started writing poems for April and posting them on their own blogs, Maureen linked to them. After a few years, so many people were doing NaPoWriMo that Maureen decided to launch an independent website for the project.

I started writing poetry in 1988 after I had been exposed to T.S. Elliot in my honors English class in high school. In 1992 I started reading my poetry publicly at Espresso Europia Coffee Shop in Abilene Tx while I was in the United States Air Force. While living in Rockford Illinois I published my first book of poetry Throwing Yourself at the Ground and Missing in 2007 followed by Postcards From Someone You Don't Know in 2008 Wisdom From the Sack in 2010 and Shaving Crop Circles In My Chest Hair in 2017. You can get copies of all of these books in my merch section. In 2020 I started publishing my podcast version of the challenge and those can be viewed here for 2020 and here for 2021.

For 2023 I am not going to be just writing poems in April, I will be writing poems all year round. Also, since I will be writing all year round, I am using a different source for my prompts. There is a blog called Think Written and you can find it here. I will also be performing these works at Katora Coffee House here in Fredericksburg Virginia on their Friday Night Snaps Open Mic Poetry reading. Some of the podcast episodes you will hear will be a live recording of me reading the poem to a live audience, other times I will be reading it in the comfort of my home studio. I do plan on posting my work to the NaPoWriMo site and interacting with the poets there and see if they want to read their work on this podcast.

Fast Food: Write a poem about fast food restaurants and experiences. 

After The Casino 

11 April 2023 

Driving through the fog of West Virginia 

Taking the backroads because my car can’t do 75 

Before everyone and their brother had cell phone coverage  

We both struggled to keep our eyes open 

We should have probably grabbed some food on the way out of the casino 

We had both won a tidy sum that paid for the trip and the rent for the next two months 

We didn’t notice when we crossed back into Virginia 

Because at night, most states look the same 

With the last cigarette tossed out of the window 

And a few hours until we arrived at home 

We pulled over at a gas station and Waffle House 

Conjoined at the hip  

The sun was still a few hours away 

We entered the gas station and purchased our brand of addiction 

Relived ourselves in the grimy bathroom 

And found a seat in the empty restaurant 

The sounds of the bells and whistles 

From the plethora of machines drowned out the waitress 

And it took longer than it should have to take our order 

All three of us were tired 

But only 1 was being paid to be here 

And it wasn’t my passenger and I 

My passenger stated his order  

as I was downing the first cup of coffee 

Then it was my turn to interact 

Mindlessly I ordered breakfast and some soup 

The waitress appeared to me 

Muttered crackers? 

And thinking she was referring to us 

Two white boys in the middle of the night 

Driving a car in need of serious repair 

Smelling of smoke and speaking loudly 

We both broke out in laughter 

The waitress asked what was so funny 

I replied you called us crackers 

No, crackers for your soup is what I asked 

You boys look a little rough tonight how far have you got to go 

We let her know and talked to her till the sun rose 

We were well fed 

Energized from the copious amount of coffee 

Ready to take on the final leg of the journey 

And to this day, when either of us hears the word crackers 

We are transported to that night 

Somewhere between West Virginia and home 

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