The Wordsmith's Forge

This is the freebie for today's fishbowl. It came out of the August 1, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl inspired by . It also fills the "art" square in my 7-31-17 card for the Cottoncandy Bingo fest. This poem belongs to the series Walking the Beat.

Mysterious and Impermanent

The streetscape of Jamaica Plain
was colorful and constantly changing.

What Dale and Kelly loved the most
about it was the street art.

Dale's favorite was the mural
of flowers along the side of
Botanica San Miguel.

Kelly preferred the chaos of
Graffiti House, where each wall
featured a different image.

Sometimes they felt
saddened and confused
to discover a favorite mural gone,

but also hopeful that
another one may
be in the works.

Street art was mysterious
and impermanent like that.

It could appear or disappear overnight.

If you loved it, you had to learn
how to live with that.

So when Jamaica Plain
struggled to adapt to a surge
in new immigrants and refugees,

the community carried on
its conversation about the issue
through street art.

There was the mural
in Jackson Square that read,
We Are Family alongside
Welcome in several languages.

Youth Aim got together
and made a mural that read,
Time to take back our streets.

Dale and Kelly smiled to see
the changes, and took pictures.

There were guest presentations
by artists and immigrants, who talked
about how identity, like art, could be
mysterious and impermanent.

Not content with painting the town,
a local swim team painted themselves
safety orange and then floated in
Boston’s Fort Point Channel,
clinging to innertubes.

Each swimmer raised
10¢ per minute from each of
their sponsors, and the longest
of them lasted four hours
in the chilly water.

"Guess whose swimmer
outlasted everyone else,"
Dale said, showing Kelly
the results from the event.

So they ate a lot of ramen
that month, but it was totally worth it.

Some things have value without being precious.

* * *

Notes:

"I felt saddened and confused to discover my favorite mural gone, but also hopeful that another one may be in the works. Street art is mysterious and impermanent like that. It can appear or disappear overnight. Murals like these are at risk of desecration, transformation, erasure. Someone's gonna piss on it, draw a mustache on it, tag it. The weather's going to make it fade. That's part of the beauty, I think. Murals have value without being precious."
-- Emily Raboteau

See the mural of flowers at the Botanica San Miguel.

This is the Graffiti House in Jamaica Plain.

Here is the We Are Family mural.

See the YouthAim! mural.

These are the orange swimmers.

 Humorous but useful.

People of the Druze faith practice endogamy, because only children of two Druze parents can be Druze. 

Which seems fine until you think about how farmemory and reincarnation actually work.  You've got this bunch of souls who are all by now quite attached to each other, and some who have gotten sick of each other.  So while a lot of them are still huddling together, there are some who go wandering.  They fall in love with somebody new.  And it doesn't matter what the religion says, some of those kids are going to have Druze souls.  Now what in the merry hell do you do with kids who have Druze memories but aren't allowed into the culture?  That has got to be a mess.

I've actually met a Druze person, in college, and we had a lot of fun.  Well, I was the only other person with farmemory, so it was kind of inevitable.  It's a fascinating religion.

But damn, I'm glad I don't have to clean up after that.

This poem is from the August 15, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from kelkyag and chanter_greenie. It also fills the "courting couple" square in my 5-29-17 card for the Pride Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by bairnsidhe. It belongs to the series Monster House.

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This poem is spillover from the November 7, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from lone_cat. It also fills the "huddle for warmth" square in my 7-1-16 card for the trope_bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Officer Pink thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

Warning: This poem contains some touchy topics.  Highlight to read the warnings, some of which are spoilers.  It includes time-sensitive pressure to do things that Turq isn't ready for yet, stress, social awkwardness, sharing a bed (platonically) for the first time, unaddressed issues caused by adding another person to a previously stable couple, temporarily treating a furry person as a nonperson, snappish behavior, sudden nudity, misunderstandings, hurt feelings, partial reconciliation, and other challenges.  It's more fluff than angst, though.  If these are sensitive issues for you, please consider your tastes and headspace before reading onward.

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This poem came out of the November 21, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by a prompt from ng_moonmoth. It also fills the "stars" square in my 10-31-17 Space card for the Space and Time Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the series Feathered Nests, which you can explore via my Serial Poetry page.

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The following poems from the November 21, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl are currently available. Poems may be sponsored via PayPal -- there's a permanent donation button on my Dreamwidth profile page -- or you can write to me and discuss other methods.

There are still verses left in the linkback poems "Dangerous Refuges," "The Marble and the Sculptor," "Leaves Upon the Water," "Lead Us in Peace," "We Will Fade into You," "The Emulsification of Humankind," "Gliding In," and "The Open Gyre." Linking to this page will reveal new verses in whichever linkback poem you request.


"Dynamic Balancing Acts"
"Dynamic Balancing Acts" is an exploration of relationships, stars, and dancing.
207 lines, Buy It Now = $104 SOLD

"A Lot More Respect for a Bird"
This inspired the free-verse poem "A Lot More Respect for a Bird" which follows "Faeder Way" and features the fivesome moving into family quarters together.
46 lines, Buy It Now = $20

"More Pressure to Fit in"
Your plumage prompt contributed to the free-verse poem "More Pressure to Fit in." All species have some individuals who don't look the way they feel.
104 lines, Buy It Now = $52 SOLD

"No Yesterdays on the Road"
This contributed to the free-verse poem "No Yesterdays on the Road." The humans and the Fifers are growing together.
75 lines, Buy It Now = $38

"The Purest Love"
Your queerplatonic prompt inspired the free-verse poem "The Purest Love." Dr. Ogden learns about some of the unusual relationships among the Fifers.
100 lines, Buy It Now = $50
Available for publication after "Where We Can Go As We Are" has been sponsored and published.

"Where We Can Go As We Are"
This inspired the free-verse poem "Where We Can Go As We Are." A scuffle amongst the Fifers attracts human attention.
224 lines, Buy It Now = $112

This is today's freebie, inspired by bairnsidhe and redsixwing. It belongs to the series Feathered Nests, visible on my Serial Poetry page.

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This poem came out of the November 7, 2017 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from Shirley Barrette and readera. It also fills the "decade" box in my 10-31-17 Time card for the Space and Time Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Shirley Barrette. It belongs to the Fire and Ice thread of the Polychrome Heroics series.

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Previously I ran through a list of romantic orientations. This Tumblr list focuses more on sexual orientations, and here's my list of QUILTBAG characters.

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