I like to amuse myself from time to time by using slang that sounds completely awkward coming out of my mouth. This past week, the phrase "This is how I roll" came to me, and I took some time to really think about it. My understanding of the phrase is that it means, roughly, "This is how I do things." First I took it literally and imagined myself rolling, then I imagined a couple other contexts to which I might apply that phrase, and then I wrote a 3-part poem. So that's where today's prompt comes from.
Prompt: This is how I roll
You know the drill. Just write down that phrase and then let your mind flow and your pen follow. Freewrite anything that comes for at least five minutes. Don't stop, don't judge, don't try to control, just write.
So...I don't do this often, and I hesitate to do this now because I don't know whether I actually like the poem I wrote, but it seems like good form to share with you my own responses to the prompts from time to time, so I'm going to do that today. I'm going to share with you my 3-part poem. And I'm going to resist the urge to apologize in advance.
*ahem* Okay. Here you go.
This is how I roll
Side to side
back & forth
back & forth
ball to heel to ball
pitched forward
chin tucked, body
curling in on itself
like a new fern leaf
Touch down on right
shoulder, the part where
all the stress-knots form
Crossing spine, minimizing
contact with vertebrae
Left buttock then
legs launched
arms hitting flat
with a "Ha!"
This is how I roll
in a dirty Honda Civic
blue beneath the gray film
interior covered in dog hair
smudges inside all the windows
I can make one tank of gas
last a whole month
This is how I roll
with a hand basket or
a small, two-tiered cart
working the aisles left to right
an eye out for the hot guy
most of my time spent in the
coffee and pasta/soup aisles
maybe a stop at the hot
deli for a fried burrito
before hitting the produce section
Half the veggies I buy
I'll never consume
Deserves comment. Rolling comment. Starting with 'happy baby' on the mat, moving to the endless road over plains of seeming nothing to be explored for blooms and grains, and on into the sources of nourishment and despair. "Roll on, Columbia, roll on," Woody Guthrie wrote, pandering that once in his hard life to the Federal handout. And how many people in the pain of death-by-alcohol have been pushed further into the blues by being rolled - and how many pushed to deal with new life beginning inside them by a roll in the hay? Or a Tootsie Roll, eh, toots? Or played a minor role in history - or did they roll over and take a fall? Oh, yes, this is fun. Thanks, toots.
ReplyDelete~ Jim
I love this! So much fun to read, Jim! Thank you for sharing. =*)
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