Homework

So I am posting my "Poetry Class" homework. Most poets say that a poem is never really finished, you just decide to leave it alone. That is true especially in the case of poems that are written in all of fifteen minutes. I am still hopeful that some of you have had inspiration of your own and will also want to post your "assignment" on the blog. I am posting my poem so that no one will feel self concious if their poem is not first rate :)

A sleep and a forgetting
a day's lost chance:

where you could have been the one
who sat down at dinner parties
and played the piano so well;

where you could have been the one
who taught all of the children
at the birthday party a new dance
so they forgot all about presents;

where you could have been the one
who built a log cabin out in the woods
with just an axe and a pencil
and never cared about being alone;

where you could have been the one
who spoke with a foreign accent
and had all the maps of the city;

where you could have been the one
to make a paint and plaster of paris world
and not bother about who liked it.

Instead you were asleep and forgetting,
a days lost chance,
the missing car keys,
or the loose change that falls from
someone's pocket into the black crack
between the sofa cushions

I think we need one of those dogs
that when you throw something away
always brings it back for you
to try and throw it away again.

I think we need to train a bird
that flies to the dry land
of lost dreams
and comes back
the dream in its beak
to let you know its safe
to start all over.