POETRY PATCH

A++++ for Mischief

TDW #166 | Mischief | 415 words

ChatGPT planted the pixels, the poets supplied the mischief, and the red pen lost all authority.

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The FC Poetry Patch began as a disaster. Red dirt cracked. Birds flew backwards. The cactus was relocating; the scarecrow left a forwarding address. It wasn’t a garden. It was a warning to gardeners.

I ignored the climate and planted poetry. Imaginary poetry. A sonnet sent clematis climbing, a ghazal brought a nightingale, a villanelle commandeered the ivy. The dustbowl became a conservatory, staffed by poets unaware they’d been hired.

I tagged everyone to show them their names among the flowers.

Then went about my business.

First mistake.

Second: underestimating FC writers.

Mischief intervened. Poems arrived. I became the teacher. I uncapped my red pen.

Zeest gets an A+++!
Her Martian rooster ate the harvest,
then pecked my grading rubric to shreds.

Extra credit for three crows,
two suns,
and making loneliness feel
a little less lonely.

Ron gets an A+++!
A limerick, a haiku, a sonnet attempt,
and three thistles as…