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With your mind's eye slowly look over your shelves, in a jewelry box, a drawer, or a keepsake container. Is there an object that has moved with you from place to place? An object that you value? Write a description of it and the meaning it holds for you.
Can you live without it?
Who would you give it to?
(see the prompt below the poem)
Charleen McClure
She needs to eat. She needs
to keep something warm in
her stomach. I reheat rice on the stove,
some cabbage and smoked salmon
and bring it to her in bed.
Like a widow, she chews the end
of a bone already buried. Ignores
the plate. I make her sit up anyways
adjust just before she spits
her last meal into my hands. Warm,
half-digested ghost.
Downstairs in the kitchen
I’ll eat from this plate, the white grains
cold and dead, pinched in my fingers’
tight grip raised to a mouth
emptied—already open.
And I’ll try to—no, I will,
I’ll keep it down.
Copyright © 2020 by Charleen McClure
Describe an intimate (but not sexual) interaction between you and another person - someone you love, a family member, or even a stranger or someone you don’t know well.
In the 1950's many protestants believed that all Catholics, Jews and people on the continent of Africa who were unbaptized were surely going to hell where they would burn for eternity. Some even thought that the Methodists were bound for hell because they were not baptized by being dunked into water. Actual wrongs and destructive, dehumanizing actions by individuals and groups were largely ignored.
Even if you don't necessarily believe in eternal punishment after death for evil deeds, list three people or groups you would like to punish in 2020.
Pick one and describe why.
What torture can you imagine would suit what they have done?
How do you feel after writing this?
You have inherited an empty museum in a small town. What will you put in it?
Flannery O'Connor said "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd,"
List two ways in which you are odd and then describe one of them.
In seven years, when I look back on the quarentine from this virus, I will remember…
Answer in a paragraph or two Mary Oliver's question:
"Do you remember who you were before they told you what to be?"
Jamie, a marketing director for Proctor & Givens, looked forward to Monday at 5 p.m. when everyone in town would be ordered by the Mayor to stay in their homes or apartments for the next two weeks. She had a list of tasks "on the back burner" that she would loved to polish off.
On Tuesday she celebrated with no makeup or tight narrow leggings and high heels. She stayed in her tee shirt and baggie flannel bottoms. She dropped spaghetti in her lap eating in front of her ipad.
On Wednesday little jingles and tag lines began popping up for products people could use while being sequestered to stop the spread of the deadly virus circling the globe. Without showering, she put on a teal velour robe with matching flats and combed her grey-streaked hair in case someone came to the door.
On Thursday, ...
If every morning you got up saying to yourself “I could die today,” which is true, how would that change how you spend your time?
Make list of four things you might do differently.
Elementary school children used to pass out small store-bought valentines to each child in the class featuring hearts, kittens, puppies, ponies, and flowers.
Make up 10 short message valentines for enemies and politicians OR friends and neighbors. If you get carried away, write 25.
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