November PAD Chapbook Challenge: Day 27

We’re almost there. Time to crack our knuckles, roll up our sleeves, loosen our ties and get to work. What am I talking about? Today (at least in the U.S.) is…

We're almost there. Time to crack our knuckles, roll up our sleeves, loosen our ties and get to work. What am I talking about? Today (at least in the U.S.) is Thanksgiving, which means it's time to watch parades, graze the veggie trays, loosen our belts, and fall asleep--after writing your poem for today, of course. Oh yeah, it's on.

For today's prompt, I want you to write a poem that could be the climax of your collection. This is the take-no-prisoners poem you've been working toward all month. You get to decide how you're going to approach this poem, but keep it focused on your theme--and make it climactic.

Imagine that if people read the poem you're about to write that their faces would melt off from the brilliance of it--and that they'll all get together (at least the ones who are still alive) and sing praises to your poetic brilliance. No pressure.

Here's my attempt for the day:

"Witching Hour"

She hears him breathing,
but she can't see anything--
just darkness. Her skin shivers
beneath the autumn breeze,
no moon. She hears him
breathing and moving around
as if he knows where he's headed,
and maybe he does she thinks.

She grips the knife in her hand
tighter, thinks about how she
will do it, how she will stab him,
which direction she'll run to get
away. She hears him breahing
and moving closer; she feels
as if she reached out that
she could touch or cut him.

She hears him breathing before
she hears him leaving.

Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.