April PAD Challenge: Day 14

Even before some of the comments left yesterday, I've noticed there is a community forming with this April PAD Challenge. Many of you have thanked me, but you should really be thanking yourselves.

A community is only as strong as those who are a part of it. Many of you have posted every single day and left encouraging words and praise for your fellow poets. I'm not doing that; you are; and I'm very proud of you all.

Personally, I think it would be a wasted opportunity--for all of us--to assign writing poetry regularly to one month out of the year. So I'm going to check into a few different options to keep our group together beyond April. There are already some great ideas in yesterday's comments--plus, I've had a few rolling around in my head. So together, I'm sure we'll come up with something amazing. More on this soon, but I know you're all ready to get Monday started off right with today's prompt.

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So, today's prompt is actually inspired by a song I love by Feist. The song is called "How My Heart Behaves," and the prompt for today is to write a poem with the title "How (fill in the blank) behaves"--with the poem inspired by whatever you put in that blank. For instance, you could have a poem titled "How Mr. T's mohawk behaves" or "How the homeless man on 9th Street behaves." Have fun with this one (I know you will).

Here's my poem for the day:

"How the playground of my mind behaves"

The girls are full of worry
beside the teeter
totter
afraid that Billy won't be stopping by.

And the boys are playing football
as the teachers fret and fuss:
Are there going to be any broken bones today?

Behind them, the bully
does his daily milk money shake down
and punches his sidekick in the arm.

There's a co-ed game of 4-square,
some girls with their jumping rope,
and boys wanting to hang from the monkey bars.

Beneath the hot metal slide
no one rides in summer,
Billy sits kissing his favorite girl
until the bell sounds for them all to go inside.