National Poetry Month Day Eleven

Prompt:  Write a poem inspired by this line from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby:  “The loneliest moment in someone’s life is when they are watching their whole world fall apart, and all they can do is stare blankly.”  Extra credit, use at least five of these words from the novel—ravenous, melancholy, dissolve, resentment, ceaseless, menagerie, nebulous, scorn, sport, fool, parties, tender.

How Did Your Day Go?

The sky is blue, the sea is calm,

The beach ahead is smooth and gray.

A time to shake off melancholy,

Escaping the menagerie.

I ease around the rugged point.

I scorn the slow incoming tide,

Ignore the ceaseless hiss of stones,

Putting common sense aside.

I stroll along the narrowing sand.

I relish blissful time alone.

Then, ravenous, reverse my course,

Resentment and all outrage gone.

An exclamation breaks my lips.

The sea has swiped my exit out.

Steep crags on left, high surf on right,

A fool I am without a doubt.

The loneliest moment in one’s life

Is when they watch their world dissolve.

I don’t stare blankly at my fate

But strive to climb the cliffs above.

My tender fingers split and bleed.

Three times I tumble, nearly fall.

I fight my way through briar and brush

And finally scale the rugged wall.

It’s dark but I can see the glow

Of headlights on the road to town.

Yet no one gives a ride to tramps.

Sad and wise I trudge back home.