November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 23

Today’s prompt is to write a poem that I’m calling the “Been Everywhere” poem. If you’re doing locations, it would be a poem that gives a shout out to all the places you’ve been. This can be made metaphorical, though.

For instance, if you’re writing poems about cancer, you could write a poem about cancer cells that have traveled through different parts of the body. If you’re writing cooking poems, you could write from the perspective of a cook who talks about all the meals he or she has cooked. Definitely keep doing what you’ve been doing and get creative with it and bend the rules to your theme.

Here’s my attempt for the day:

“Pub”

Around midnight, he entered the little pub and set down a bag of wood stakes
before ordering a shot of whiskey. Three other men were still hanging around,
and they all shot nervous glances in the stranger’s direction. Everyone in town
had heard the stories, had heard the screams and howls in the night. Everyone
knew and talked about it, but they talked about it in the same way they talked
of the afterlife—something everyone believes in and fears but impossible to
imagine. Yet, he entered the pub with wood stakes. So one of the men asked,
“Are you a hunter?” “I am.” And the pub again filled with a fog of silence
before the second man asked, “Have you ever killed a vampire?” “I have.”
Then, the third man asked, “Where?” The stranger took a drink of whiskey
and looked up at all three men, who quickly looked down at their shoestrings.

“I’ve killed werewolves in Istanbul, zombies in Pittsburgh, and witches
in Vancouver. I’ve hunted vampires in Louisiana, warlocks in Greenland,

and ghosts in Taiwan. There is little I have hunted; there is little I haven’t

killed. And that includes people who ask too many questions about what I do
and how I do it.” Then, the stranger downed the rest of his drink,

placed some money on the counter, and walked outside and into the night.