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Celia Jenkins

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 1

Prompt: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write – without consulting the book – a poem that recounts the plot, or some portion of the plot, of a novel that you remember having liked but that you haven’t read in a long time.


***


Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli


Though named for stars

She was sunshine, lightness,

Bright as a clear, quiet morning.

Intrusive as sunlight

Finding its way through every crack,

Bringing warmth, slowly,

As to a rock

Left out in the

Arizona sun.


She had the rodent

But he was mousey,

No voice

Squeak

No opinions

Squeak squeak

Not even about her.


Disbelieving, squint-eyed,

Their lives collide.


And his are opened wide.

Wonder. Mystery

As never before,

A life he didn't know

You could dare to live.


But hers, gradually,

Gaze drawn down

To the baked dust ground,

Ground-down

Susan

The starlight flickers,

Fades, her sparkle

Gone


Until she breaks herself free

From him, from them,

Be herself again.

Flying like a porcupine neckerchief

On the wind.




***


Look at that, day 1 of #NaPoWriMo2024 and I've written a poem to the prompt. A glimmer at the end of the tunnel of my writing hiatus.


I loved Stargirl when it came out. I loved it so much that I never read the sequel, because it had already ended perfectly and I didn't need to know what came next. When I read the poetry prompt, the bright pink cover of the edition I still have jumped into my mind. And here we are. Happy NaPoWriMo and ganbatte to the poets.

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