Back at That

August 20, 2013

Overheard: Couple in their 20s, she to him: Are we back at that?

Where it took me: Being so much older and wiser now (yeah, right), I know that most couples fight about the same few things. The words and intensity might change, but the main points of difference usually stick. This realization prompted me to write a list poem with a vague subject (‘that’) that somehow feels specific because it is so relatable.

Alien Baby Jazz

August 15, 2013

Overheard: An older gentleman sits alone sipping coffee and looking out the window. A young woman, frazzled, comes in with a baby in a stroller and sits next to him. The baby is shouting and banging loudly. The mom apologizes to the man but he says the sound “is like music to my ears,” and tells her about his wife “who has passed” and his children who are “much older than you I suspect.”

Where it took me: I’ve been trying to write something from this prompt for a while, but the result was very bland. So I took the scramble approach to see what would happen when I reorganized the straightforward telling of the story. I was extremely surprised at the musicality of the final version. I didn’t know that was in there.

The Starbucks Poetry Project

For the moment, find me here: sber40.wix.com/susieberg