Wednesday Poetry Prompts: 103

For this week's prompt, I want you to take the phrase "Whatever (blank)," replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: "Whatever you say," "Whatever happens in Vegas stays in Vegas," "Whatever happened to my three-legged dog," or whatever else you can devise.

Here's my attempt:

"Whatever duh"

These new attitudes and stances
learned from school yard bullies and cool
kids. Reese thinks Stacy is "hot," and
I don't know whether to smile or
not. When I ask him what he wants
for dinner, he tells me--followed
by the word, "duh." And when I ask
him to pick up his books, he says,
"Whatever"--also followed by
"duh." As a parent, there's a war
of words: those to use and those to
let others use. As a poet,
I understand the need to play
with words and experiment with
expressions, but one more eye roll
and "whatever, duh" will result
in a six-year-old "time out." Duh.

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Want more poetic information and advice from a great poet? Then, check out Sage Cohen's Writing the Life Poetic. Click here to learn more.