I’m using daily prompts associated with Inktober (artists doing ink drawings) to spur poetry this month. The poems flow from the prompts, though it may not be obvious (at all); and sometimes the poems are revisions of earlier poems that came to mind when I mulled the prompt. If there’s a photo in the post, it was chosen after the poem was written. I’m “showing my work” by offering some of the words, phrases, associations that came to me for each prompt. The poems may or may not have anything to do with gardens, gardening, or “nature” as it’s commonly considered. To see all the poems (once they’re written), check the Inktober landing page.

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Today’s prompt: BAIT.

Some associations: bait & switch, lure, allure, glamour (alluring charm, magic, enchantment), tease, taunt, provoke, set a trap, fish or cut bait, poison, sharkbait (gullible), jailbait, clickbait, rise to the bait, worm, reactivity, tug at the end of the line, Trojan horse, the trap of consciousness, shenpa (being hooked, triggered)

Poem:

Shelter

Alluring to think that what’s surface, what’s shown, is entirely real
without its secret heart: what’s hidden: the wires, the decay,
the moments of shame and fear, all the missteps,
the lifelong debris. Mysterious, that fresh
perfection in a clean and golden space, luminous
aesthetic of certainty: primary colour block, simple shapes,
happy patterns, sure warmth shared, a welcome,
a possibility you present, that way you have of moving
precisely with the flow of life, smiling
openly, awash in gratitude like a universal hug;
while hours later in a slowly muddied and unsettled day
I stumble, shamble, crumble in moments, frowning hard,
grateful in my own way, especially for darkness, doubt, places to hide,
the illusions that protect us all.

©MMWms 2019