Writer's Digest Poem A Day Challenge

Wow! Fun times. My daughters challenged me to dueling poetry via Robert Lee Brewer's Poetic Asides Blog Poetry Contest. Every year he hosts the November Poem A Day challenge where prompts are provided for each day of the month. The challenge is to write a poem using the prompt for a title, theme, or motif within the poem. I did this once before (I think it was 2010). This time I felt much better about my work.

Sorry, though. Not posting any of the poems here until after they've been submitted elsewhere. I will post the final poem (today's prompt--November 30--was "milk"). I posted this one on his comment section so it's already public.

Been there, done that: Got Milk

My father in his mid-life crazies

recruited me for milking cows.

He packed me off to a farm in Texas

where he built a fine brick house.

I hated milking cows.

My arms grew thick and strong, I had

a death-grip-hand-shake—

it gave me strength, taught me how

to appreciate my work.

I hated milking cows.

Five o’clock every day

I would rise, pail in hand

and stomp my way to the barn

to relieve two brown Jerseys.

I hated milking cows.

I asked him why the task fell

to me, after all, it was

his idea from the start.

He explained how I received

the benefits of fresh dairy:

sweet milk, cream, and butter.

Our cows ate weeds, the milk was strong

the cream was rank and butter bitter.

I didn’t seem to profit much.

But it taught me industry,

early morning solitude,

and the meaning of metaphor

which I milked for all its worth.

And I hate milking cows.