2013 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 6

Here we are six days into the challenge. I hope you've been getting some good material so far; I'm looking forward to playing with what I've written so far. Before the prompt today, I want to mention a challenge I'm running with a $500 prize and no entry fee (Click here for the guidelines). The challenge involves remixing poems from my debut collection of poetry, Solving the World's Problems.

For today's prompt, write a poem from the perspective of a person who either works at and/or visits a place you like to visit (that's not yourself). For instance, a fry chef at the Krusty Krab, a bouncer at a nightclub, waitress at a restaurant, etc.

Here is my attempt at a perspective poem:

"Aurora"

I left just before they started
running out of the building. I
went to bed the same as always

and woke up to phone calls and friends
crying. I was in shock, sure, but
the Jessica Ridgeway stuff hurt

me more. The theater is not
the same, and others left with
PTSD. Nice customers

ask if we're okay, but others
make jokes. Most don't come for the films
anymore, but it's better than

pretending it never happened.

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Want to improve your poems? Consider working on them in an online workshop environment. Click here to learn more.

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Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Content Editor of the Writer's Digest Writing Community and watches about half-a-dozen films each year in the theater (usually at the "dollar" cinema). He still hasn't seen The Dark Knight Rises. While I fabricated parts of this account, I did use a lot of specifics from a real account (click here to read an interview with an Aurora theater worker). As mentioned above, Robert is the author of Solving the World's Problems (Press 53). He's married to the poet Tammy Foster Brewer, who helps him keep track of their five little poets (four boys and one princess). Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.

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