Poetry?

Last night was closing night for my last ever high school show, The Diviners.  It was...bittersweet.  But I will discuss that later because tonight is prom and I have to get ready soon, so I have something else to leave you with.

About a week ago, Hayley Hoover made a blog post about poetry, and included a poem that she wrote with the prompt for it, inviting her readers to write their own poems based on the prompt.  Now, I'm not much of a poet (excluding that mysterious poet phase I went through a year ago...), but I decided to take a whack at writing a this poem.  I wrote it in class yesterday and the day before, then I reread it today to make sure it doesn't completely suck.  I shall include the prompt too, if you wish to also write a poem.

Warning: my poem contains mild language. Well, not mild exactly.  I kind of drop the F bomb.

In your poem, include at least fourteen of the following items: a statistic, a dish eaten cold, three forms of heat, a smell you can't forget, a line from a movie, something out of a textbook, two things you wish you had said, a reference to an aunt or uncle, some kind of moving vehicle, two words beginning with R and ending with "-ion", a stage direction, two distinct hours of the day, an historical figure, an adhesive, an animal only seen up close in the zoo, a slang expression ("call it quits," for example), something really bad that you did, something that undermines or negates everything else you've said.

Such a big part of my life
I can’t just quit cold turkey.
I want to get out of here, take a car
And drive past midnight
Sleep in until 2 in the afternoon

And they’ll say “Sorry for ending the world”
Well, not the world. My world.
I don’t want to go,
But I can’t be free here.
Like a polar bear, looking so content
But restricted to the confines of his cage.

Do I continue or move on?
Will I never again be told,
“Watch all your firsts,” or “Exit stage left”?
The sweltering heat of thirty bodies backstage
And the scorch of the stage lights.

Will I now only be warm in the sun?
In the sun I only freckle or burn, so
The smell of sunscreen is a familiar one
That reminds me of the summer I long for.

I can stay here and rebel
(In my own, unrebellious way)
Chew gum in class, and when they tell me
To throw it out, I’ll stick it in my textbook,
Binding the monotonous pages together.

But once I’m gone, I’ll want to come back.
I’ll wish I could’ve thanked those who helped me
Or given a big ol’ “FUCK YOU” to the ones I hate.
I can’t just let it go.

Aunt Olivia says she’s proud
When she doesn’t care about this, about me.
And I’ll miss the words of Shakespeare,
Bringing meaning to what others deem gibberish.
But they don’t understand.
I won’t have to let it go completely.
I’ll give this a shot.
I can duct tape my life together:
The new, and the old.

Hopefully you enjoyed it!  Now that my life isn't consumed with rehearsals and performances, I might actually post every day in these last few days of BEDA.  Maybe.

One month and three days until graduation!